Anti-poaching scheme launched at antelope's habitat

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, April 04, 2004

Anti-poaching scheme launched at antelope's habitat

A major anti-poaching blitz has been launched at northwest China's Hoh Xil Nature Reserve, the main habitat of the Tibetan antelope, to protect migrating pregnant Tibetan antelope.

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A major anti-poaching blitz has been launched at northwest China's Hoh Xil Nature Reserve, the main habitat of the Tibetan antelope, to protect migrating pregnant Tibetan antelope.

Female antelopes migrate north in spring every year to give birth along the banks of the Zhuonai and Taiyang lakes in northwestern China. They then make the return trip with their babies a couple of months later. If the pregnant antelope encounter armed poachers, they are either captured or killed and some will miscarry.

Thirty forest rangers have set out in eight motor vehicles to patrol the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve and its surrounding areas.

Meanwhile, the main force of the anti-poaching campaign are scouting around at the juncture of Qinghai Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China and Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China.

The Tibetan antelope, an endangered species at the top of China's protection list, is native to the grasslands of Qinghai, Xinjiang and Tibet. Environmental protectionists said if illegal hunting persists, this highly-endangered species would disappear from the earth in a short period.

Poaching is still far from being eradicated in China because ofthe international trade in "shahtoosh," the fine and soft shawl made from the antelope's wool. A single shahtoosh shawl, priced atsome 18,000 US dollars in Western countries, is reportedly made atthe cost of three to five antelopes' lives.

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