Tibetan Plateau antelope populations are rapidly declining, reduced by poaching for meat and hides. Ironically, the endangered antelope face their greatest threat not from subsistence hunting, but from international demand for shatoosh, their highly-prized wool. Demand for shatoosh has risen alarmingly since the 1980s, when shatoosh became more popular in Asia and an increasingly favored fashion item in Europe, the US and Australia. The antelope is endemic to the Tibetan Plateau regions of India and China. Males average four feet tall and 80 pounds, with sharp, tapering horns nearly two feet long and distinctive black markings on their otherwise grayish coats.
Females are smaller and hornless, with tawny coloration.
Despite designation of the 115,500 sq. In addition to local Tibetans and Chinese people involved in the illegal hunting and trade, a growing number of outsiders have started to come to the region specifically to shoot chiru. Local officials estimate that a t least 2000 -4000 animals are poached annually in the Chang Tang. Wildlife agencies are too understaffed to prevent the illegal hunting. With chiru wool now a lucrative commodity, the animals are being relentlessly hunted, said George Schaller, the Wildlife Conservation Society s director for science.