A Deadly Fashion

Abstract

On first encountering chiru in 1985, I admired their beauty and was eager to learn about their life in these bleak uplands of the Chang Tang. Then, as I grew to know them better, and become aware of the great chiru migrations, I realized that their travels defined the landscape. Protect the chiru, and all other species in the region, the whole ecosystem, would benefit. But by 1990 I realized, too, that Tibetan nomads were killing chiru not just for subsistence, something for which I have sympathy, but also for commercial profit by selling hides. What were the hides used for, and where were they sent? I had no idea. Slowly I discovered that chiru wool was smuggled to Kashmir in India to be woven into expensive shawls, sold under the name of shahtoosh. With the mass slaughter of chiru that began in the late 1980s, with so many guns against them, including those of poachers who lived far from the Chang Tang, I could no longer simply continue my peaceful studies.