Conservation and welfare challenges for chiru on the Tibetan Plateau, historically hunted to near-extinction for shahtoosh wool.
Chiru conservation represents a recovery success achieved through enforcement action against luxury wool poaching — yet recovery remains incomplete and new threats have emerged. The acute welfare harm of poaching for shahtoosh — killing animals for a product with legal alternatives — drove the population collapse. Recovery has been impressive but chiru now face infrastructure-related habitat fragmentation that disrupts the calving migrations essential to population productivity. Each animal caught in a fence or struck by a vehicle represents individual welfare harm. Continued protection from poaching combined with wildlife-friendly infrastructure policies maintains the recovery trajectory.