THE CHIRU, OR TIBETAN ANTELOPE 



885 



THE CHIRU, OR TIBETAN ANTELOPE 

 Genus Pantholops 



In addition to possessing a peculiar species of gazelle, to which reference has 

 already been made, the elevated and barren plateau of Tibet is further characterized 

 by an antelope remarkable for the swollen nose and long elegant horns of the bucks. 

 This antelope is the chiru (Pantholops hodgsoni], the sole representative of the 

 genus to which it belongs. In many respects the chiru is allied to the saiga, 

 mentioned next, but the nose is less convex, and the nostrils open anteriorly instead 

 of downward. The horns (which, as in 

 aD. the following members of this group 

 are present only in the bucks) are black, 

 long, erect, laterally compressed, and sub- 

 lyrate, with rings in front for the lower 

 two-thirds of their length. There is no 

 gland below the eye; and the skull lacks 

 the pits between the eyes found in the 

 other members of the group. In height 

 the male chiru stands thirty-two inches at 

 the shoulder; and it is covered with very 

 thick, close fur becoming woolly near the 

 skin. The color is pale fawn above and 

 white below; the whole face and a stripe 

 down the front of each leg being black 

 or dark brown in the bucks. The horns 

 frequently reach twenty-four and twenty- 

 six inches in length, and one pair has been 

 recorded of twenty -seven and one-half 

 inches. The chiru probably inhabits the 

 whole of the Tibetan plateau, at the same 

 elevations as the Tibetan gazelle. 



In summer the sexes live 

 apart; and these antelopes 

 are often found in parties of from three to 

 four individuals, but sometimes in large 

 herds. They frequent the open rolling 

 plains, or broad river valleys, and gener- 

 ally feed at morning and evening. Al- 

 though usually difficult to approach, a 

 solitary buck will sometimes start up from 

 a ravine close to the traveler's feet, as 



once happened to the present writer. General Kinloch states that the chiru is in 

 the habit of excavating hollows in the sand, in which it will lie concealed during 

 the day. The young are born in summer; one only being produced at a birth. 



Habits 



HEAD OF CHIRU. 



