{"id":360907,"date":"2026-04-16T15:11:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T09:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=360907"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:11:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T09:41:23","slug":"tibetan-antelope-pantholops-hodgsonii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/tibetan-antelope-pantholops-hodgsonii\/","title":{"rendered":"Tibetan Antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>News: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a landmark ruling for wildlife law enforcement in India, a New Delhi court has convicted a Jaipur art gallery owner for attempting to illegally export Shahtoosh shawls made from the hair of the Tibetan Antelope.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>About Tibetan Antelope<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 478px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/d1jyxxz9imt9yb.cloudfront.net\/medialib\/4614\/image\/s768x1300\/AdobeStock_396536276_537358_reduced.jpg?resize=478%2C269&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Tibetan Antelope (Chiru)\" width=\"478\" height=\"269\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: IFAW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Tibetan antelope, also known as<\/span><b> \u2018chiru\u2019,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a <\/span><b>small, unique species related to goats and sheep.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Scientific name: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their scientific name is <\/span><b>Pantholops hodgsonii.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Habitat:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They live at high elevations of 3,250 to 5,500 m in <strong>alpine, desert steppe, and meadow areas.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Distribution:<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are endemic to the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau (QTP). They are <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">distributed in <\/span><b>China [Xinjiang, Xizang, Qinghai, Zhuolaihu Lake (Breeding habitat)] and India (Aksai Chin and Ladakh).<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <strong>India<\/strong>, Tibetan antelopes are found in <strong>Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) and the Chang Chenmo Valley (CCV) in north\u2013east Ladakh.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Characteristics:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Size and weight: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>medium-sized<\/strong> antelope, with a shoulder height of about <\/span><b>83 cm in males, and 74 cm in females. <\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Weight:<\/strong> Their weight is around <\/span><b>25\u201340 kg.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have<\/span><b> slim bodies and long legs, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">enabling them to <strong>move quickly<\/strong> and maintain endurance across high-altitude grasslands.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Horns: Only males <\/b>have<b> long, slightly backwards-curving horns.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Climate adaptation: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their <\/span><b>coat changes with the seasons &#8211; <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <strong>summer<\/strong>, it is <strong>light sandy brown<\/strong> with a <strong>white underbelly<\/strong> for camouflage <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <strong>winter<\/strong>, it becomes <strong>thicker to protect against cold<\/strong> temperatures and strong winds.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Fur:<\/strong> Their <strong>fur<\/strong> is <\/span><b>distinctive, <\/b>consisting of<b> long guard hairs and a silky undercoat <\/b>of<b> shorter fibres. <\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Shahtoosh<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> refers to this <\/span><b>exceptionally fine undercoat obtained from the Tibetan antelope.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are <\/span><b>migratory<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, travelling up to 400 km between summer and winter ranges.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Birthing: Females<\/strong> gather in <strong>secluded birthing<\/strong> areas to safely give birth and protect their young from predators like wolves.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Diet:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They are <strong>herbivores<\/strong>. They feed mainly on <strong>alpine grasses, sedges<\/strong>, and other hardy plants.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Threats<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Illegal demand for shahtoosh shawls<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Habitat loss\/disruption from infrastructure development<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Climate change.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Conservation:\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>IUCN: <\/b><strong>Near Threatened<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><b>CITES:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Appendix I<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a <strong>ban on the sale and trade of shahtoosh shawls<\/strong> and <strong>scarves<\/strong> under CITES and other regulations.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Schedule I<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: In a landmark ruling for wildlife law enforcement in India, a New Delhi court has convicted a Jaipur art gallery owner for attempting to illegally export Shahtoosh shawls made from the hair of the Tibetan Antelope. About Tibetan Antelope The Tibetan antelope, also known as \u2018chiru\u2019, is a small, unique species related to goats&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/tibetan-antelope-pantholops-hodgsonii\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Tibetan Antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,4182,12039,11834],"tags":[11872,3590],"class_list":["post-360907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-environment","category-knolls","category-species-in-news","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-pib","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}