| Tibetan Antelope |
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Information AboutTibetan Antelope |
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| bovidae | |
| mammals of asia | |
| mammals of india | |
| mammals of china | |
The Tibetan antelope (''Pantholops hodgsonii'') is a medium sized Bovid which is about 1.2 metres (4 feet) in height. It is native to the Tibetan Plateau including China's Tibet Autonomous Region , Qinghai province, and Xinjiang province; India near Ladakh and formerly western Nepal . The Tibetan antelope is also known commonly by its Tibetan name "chiru." The coat is grey to reddish-brown, with a white underside. The males have long, curved-back horns which measure about 50 cm (20 inches) in length. Despite its classification in the Antilopinae Subfamily , recent morphological and molecular evidence suggests that the Chiru is is more closely allied to Goats and the subfamily Caprinae (Gentry 1992, Gatesy et al. 1992, Ginsberg et al. 1999). Chirus are gregarious, sometimes congregating in herds hundreds strong. The females migrate up to 300 km yearly to calving grounds in the summer where they usually give birth to a single calf, and rejoin the males at the wintering grounds in late autumn (Schaller 1998). Chirus live on the high mountain steppes and semi-desert areas of the Tibetan plateau such as Kekexili , where they feed on various Forb and Grass species. The average life span is about eight years. Chirus are listed as endangered by the World Conservation Union and the United States Fish And Wildlife Service due to commercial poaching for their underwool, competition with local domesticated herds, and the development of their rangeland for gold mining. The Chiru's wool, known as Shahtoosh , is warm, soft and fine. The wool can only be obtained by killing the animal; Chiru numbers have dropped accordingly from an nearly a million (estimated) at the turn of the 20th century to less than 75,000 today. The numbers continue to drop yearly. The Chiru has been selected as one of the Five Official Mascots for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China . The mascot, named "Yingying," is one of the "Five Friendlies" of the 2008 Olympics and represents the blessing of health. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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