By Sean Markey

Four mountaineers traversing the high steppes of northern Tibet have succeeded in their quest to locate the key calving ground of the chiru, a rare Tibetan antelope imperiled by poaching.

Commercial poachers have devastated chiru populations over the past two decades to supply black market trade in shahtoosh, a luxurious wool spun from the chiru's inner coat that is 25 percent finer then cashmere and among the world's most expensive.

"This was the last major missing piece in the natural history of these animals," said Rick Ridgeway, 53, a noted climber from Ojai, California, and leader of the expedition, which was sponsored by the National Geographic Society Expeditions Council.

Conservationists hope the find will sway the Chinese government to expand existing nature reserves in the region to protect the birthing ground of the antelope.

Biologists estimate just 75,000 chiru (Pantholops hodgsonii) remain today, a 90 percent decline from the one million chiru believed to have roamed Tibet in 1900.

Field Study

Ridgeway said the expedition was inspired by the fieldwork of George Schaller, a noted wildlife biologist and director of science at the Bronx, New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

Schaller has studied the little-known Tibetan antelope of the Chang Tang plateau since 1987, part of a broader, multi-year study of Tibetan wildlife.

In 2001 Schaller came close to locating the birthing grounds of the western herd of chiru, the largest of four main herds, but was forced to turn back when his pack animals began to die from malnutrition and exhaustion.

"We were on a mission to complete his study," Ridgeway said. "He had a lot of confidence in us, probably more than we did in ourselves."

Few Westerners have ever set foot in the Chang Tang (Tibetan for "northern plain"), one of the most remote and sparsely populated corners of the planet.

Rolling steppes, sapphire glacial lakes, and towering 20,000-foot (6,100-meter) mountains define the startlingly beautiful landscape spanning the territories of Tibet, Xinjiang, and Qinghai in China. Unique species of antelope, wild yak, gazelle, and bear roam the plateau.

Tibetan nomads known as Dropka inhabit sparse settlements in the southern Chang Tang, a comparatively lush region that provides forage for domesticated goats, sheep, and yak raised for wool and meat.

Nomads have hunted the chiru in small numbers for hundreds of years, according to Schaller, who did not take part in this expedition. But that changed in the early 1980s. Demand for chiru hides exploded after shahtoosh became a hot fashion trend for wealthy consumers in Europe, North America, and Asia.

"Once chiru became a fashion statement…the demand became so high it became a mass slaughter with organized teams and jeeps and automatic weapons just mowing the herds," Schaller said.

Since 1983, the Chinese government has set aside a series of nature reserves that now total some 190,000 square miles (465,000 square kilometers), an area roughly the size of Germany.

Arduous Journey

Together with Ridgeway, elite climbers Conrad Anker, from Bozeman, Montana; Galen Rowell, formerly of Bishop, California; and Jimmy Chin, of Jackson, Wyomong; comprised the expedition team.

The mountaineers embarked on their expedition last May, driving for five days by SUV and truck from Llasa, Tibet, to Tose Kangiri, a 20,000-foot (6,100-meter) peak that marks the start of the chiru's 200-mile (320-kilometer) spring migration route.

The team covered the next 275 miles (440 kilometers) on foot, each pulling a 30-day supply of provisions in custom-built, two-wheeled aluminum rickshahs, across the trackless, rugged terrain averaging 15,000 to 16,000 feet (4,570 to 4,870 meters) in elevation.

Icy and muddy terrain posed constant challenges to the expedition. Forward progress became an arduous daily effort that burned more calories than the team's carefully rationed daily meals replenished, Ridgeway said.

"Each day was a slow burn of our bodies' reserve and an additional strain on our mental fortitude," Ridgeway said.

Aided by GPS units, Russian topographic maps, and Schaller's field notes, the expedition found a group of 70 female chiru on the sixth day of their trek.

For the next week, the team followed the antelope caravan until they reached the western herd's northern calving ground: A high plain where they observed two large groups of chiru, a number they estimated to total 4,800 animals.

The team spent two days photographing and filming the calving herd before their dwindling supplies forced them to continue the final leg of their trek north.

Ridgeway said the expedition "filled my expectations, good and bad."

Last Expedition

The expedition marked the last for Rowell, an acclaimed outdoor photographer who shot numerous assignments for National Geographic magazine.

In August 2002, one month after the conclusion of the Chang Tang expedition, Rowell and his wife Barbara died when the small plane they were flying crashed near their home in Bishop, California.

Ridgeway recalled that driving across the Takla Makan Desert at the conclusion of their month-long trek, Rowell, a friend of more than 30 years, confided that the expedition had been among the "top two or three trips of his life."

"He said with more distance and reflection he anticipated it might be the best trip of life," Ridgeway said. "And I find some compromised satisfaction in that."


More Information

Black Market Trade

Despite bans throughout Asia, Europe, and North America, shahtoosh trade continues.

Unlike other luxurious wools such as cashmere and pashimina, shahtoosh is produced from the fine, inner hairs of the Tibetan antelope—which cannot be shorn from the animal. Chiru must be slaughtered and skinned for poachers to obtain their precious wool.

Between 1990 and 1998, Chinese law-enforcement agents seized 17,000 chiru pelts, 2,900 pounds (1,100 kilograms) of chiru wool, 300 guns, and 153 vehicles used by poachers in 100 documented cases of black market poaching, according to a report by the environmental group TRAFFIC based on figures supplied by China's State Forestry Administration.

In 1999 United States Fish and Wildlife Service officials forced nearly 100 wealthy Manhattan residents to return shahtoosh shawls smuggled into the country.

"Most women who bought very nice shahtoosh shawls didn't have a clue where it came from," said Schaller.

Black marketers smuggle chiru wool from Tibet through Nepal to the Indian states of Kashmir and Jammu. While other states in India ban shahtoosh trade, Kashmir and Jammu sanction the centuries-old shahtoosh-weaving industries found there.

Shawls are smuggled to Hong Kong, Paris, Milan, and New York, where wealthy, fashion-conscious consumers pay U.S. $1,000 to $5,000 for them. The most elaborately embroidered shawls fetch $15,000 or more.

Conservationist George Schaller likens the shahtoosh industry to the drug trade. "So much money can be made on [the wool] that it's going to be continued to be smuggled," he said. "And unless the middlemen, the weavers, and the buyers stop using it, there's no hope of protecting [the chiru]."

Demand continued largely unchecked through the 1990s.

Despite bleak news of continued chiru poaching, Schaller says he is optimistic about the Tibetan antelope's long-term survival.

China accords the chiru it's highest level of protection for endangered animals, the same legal status granted the giant panda.

"China is truly concerned these days in trying to control poaching," Schaller said. "Yes, [the chiru] will probably decline further. But I also feel enough of the population will be left…[to] increase again."