Speaking of national first-level protected animals, most people will think of giant pandas, golden snub-nosed monkeys, crested ibises, tigers, snow leopards, etc. The number of these animals in China is as large as three or four thousand, and only a few dozen, so the first-level protected animals are very rare and on the verge of extinction in the eyes of most people. So, there is a first-class protected animal that is close to 400,000, can you believe it?
Don't be surprised, this animal is still very famous, that is, the Tibetan antelope.
Tibetan antelope is a representative species of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and a star animal at home and abroad. The mascot of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Fuwa Yingying, is based on the Tibetan antelope.
Male Tibetan antelope and female Tibetan antelope
The Description of the Tibetan Antelope in the Field Manual of Chinese Mammals: The Tibetan antelope is a larger antelope with a sandy brown to reddish yellowish brown body, a white ventral surface, densely coated and woolly shaped. The black spots on the male's face contrast sharply with the white spots on the upper lip, and there are dark spots on the front of the neck. Winter coat color is lighter, and the male antelope looks almost white from a distance. Males have characteristic long horns (50-71 cm), and females have no horns. It inhabits the cold deserts and mountains of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
The tibetan antelope population was estimated at more than 1 million in 1950, and even formed large groups of tens of thousands of them when they migrated. However, it was hunted in large numbers because of its precious fluff. The fur of the Tibetan antelope has a high-quality bottom down, good warming effect, soft texture, is considered the best cashmere, and the shatoosh (meaning the king of cashmere) made of it can be fried for tens of thousands of dollars. Vicious poachers kill Tibetan antelopes, take cashmere, smuggle them to Nepal and India through various means, make satush and then transport them to high-end luxury jewelry stores in Italy and France for sale for consumption by high society.
In the 1980s, a large number of poachers poured into Tibetan areas to hunt Tibetan antelope, in 1980-2005 an average of 20,000 Tibetan antelope were poached each year, in 1992 nearly 2 tons of Tibetan antelope cashmere smuggled to India, it takes at least 13,000 adult Tibetan antelope to produce so much cashmere, in 1994 Nepal seized 800 kg of Tibetan antelope cashmere. In addition, human activities such as pasture expansion and gold panning have also compressed the habitat of Tibetan antelope, and the reproduction of Tibetan antelope has been seriously disturbed, and the number has declined rapidly. The famous zoologist George Sharler estimated in 1997 that the number of Tibetan antelopes in Tibet was no more than 50,000, and the number of Tibetan antelopes in Qinghai and Xinjiang was about 25,000, when the total number of Tibetan antelopes was estimated to be only 75,000.
Although 75,000 sounds like a lot, it is very small compared to the number of more than 1 million. The protection of Tibetan antelope has become urgent, and China has begun to "three-pronged" to restore the tibetan antelope population.
You can watch the movie "Coco Xili" and the documentary "Balance" to know how much effort China's official workers and non-governmental volunteers have made to combat poaching and protect Tibetan antelopes.
The "second pipe" is to establish a protected area and restore the Tibetan antelope habitat. The Argin Mountain Nature Reserve was established in 1983 and upgraded to a national nature reserve in 1985, the Changtang Nature Reserve was established in 1992 and upgraded to a national level in 2000, and the Coco Xili Provincial Nature Reserve was established in 1995 and upgraded to a national level in 1997. In 2000, the Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve was established, upgraded to a national level in 2003, and became a national park in 2016. These four protected areas are the main habitats of Tibetan antelopes.
The "third pipe" is to vigorously publicize at home and abroad to raise the society's attention to Tibetan antelopes. Denouncing the evil Tibetan antelope cashmere trade, allowing the upper class to reduce the purchase of Shatush made of Tibetan antelope cashmere and crack down on its industrial chain. At the end of the last century, Tibetan antelopes were included in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and the hunting, injury and trade of Tibetan antelopes and their products was considered illegal throughout the world.
After the "three-pronged approach", the Tibetan antelope population recovered rapidly. In 2006, the tibetan antelope population in Tibet has recovered to 150,000, and the total in 2014 is close to 300,000, and in September 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) downgraded the threat level of Tibetan antelope from "endangered" to "near-threatened", downgrading it two levels in a row. In 2017, the Forestry Bureau announced that the number of Tibetan antelopes exceeded 300,000 and is currently growing towards 400,000.
Tibetan antelope is the dominant species in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there are fewer natural enemies, its main natural enemy is wolves, Tibetan horses and bears can not catch up with it, can only pick up dead Tibetan antelope, snow leopard and it has little intersection, so after human interference is reduced, Tibetan antelope can quickly recover. In addition, there are more than 70,000 Tibetan antelopes at the lowest, with a large base and a very fast recovery.
Recipes with tibetan horses and bears
Not only has the number of Tibetan antelopes increased, but the number of Tibetan wild donkeys has also exceeded 100,000, and there are about 50,000 wild yaks. They are easy to see on both sides of the national highways in Tibetan areas such as 109 and 219. If you use an analogy, the Tibetan Plateau is the "Serengeti of China."
Some people may ask, "The tibetan antelope population is growing so fast, will it flood in the future, will it have an impact on the ecology?" ”
Tibetan antelope population distribution map
At present, the number of Tibetan antelope is less than half compared with 1950, and the number of Tibetan antelope has not yet reached the upper limit of what the habitat can carry. In 1990, the expedition conducted a survey of 9 samples in Coco Siri, with a density range of 0.10-3.04 animals/km2 and an average density of 2.08 animals/km2. At present, the habitat of Tibetan antelope is conservatively estimated at 800,000 square kilometers, which can accommodate 1.6 million Tibetan antelopes according to the density of 2 per square kilometer. Therefore, at present, the Tibetan antelope is still in the stage of "recovering the lost land", and it is too early to start worrying that it will flood in the future.
There are so many Tibetan antelopes, why is it still at the national level? Because the protection of it cannot be relaxed, once it is relaxed, poachers will make a comeback, and the number of Tibetan antelopes will decline in a slippery slope, and the years of efforts will be wasted. Tibetan antelope is also the flagship species and umbrella species of the three ecological regions of the Changtang Plateau Alpine Grassland, kunlun Mountain Desert, and Qinghai-Tibet Sanjiangyuan Alpine Grassland Meadow, which play the role of ecological indicator.
The number of Tibetan antelopes has recovered from more than 70,000 at the end of the last century to nearly 400,000 now, which is a model for animal protection in China.