Chiru

About this species

Size

Shoulder height males about 83cm, females about 74cm

Weight

Males about 39kg; females about 26kg

Diet

Forbs, grasses and sedges; digs through snow in winter

Habitat

High-altitude plains, plateaus and montane valleys

Range

Mostly China; a few in Ladakh, India

The Tibetan antelope, or chiru, is a medium-sized bovid of the Tibetan Plateau. The coat is pale fawn to reddish brown with a whitish belly, thick and woolly, and the face is almost black with prominent nasal swellings. Males, about 83 cm at the shoulder and 39 kg, are larger than females, about 74 cm and 26 kg, and only males have horns, long, curved back and 54–60 cm, and black stripes on the legs. In the rut males become much paler, almost white (Wikipedia, general species account).

Most live in China, with a few scattered across the border in Ladakh, India. It feeds on forbs, grasses and sedges and digs through snow for food in winter. It is gregarious, sometimes in herds of hundreds when moving between summer and winter pastures, though more usually in groups of up to 20. It is hunted for its fine underfur, which is used to make shahtoosh shawls: it takes the underfur of three to five adults to make one. Wolves, lynx and snow leopards are natural predators (Wikipedia, general species account).

Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)