A shahtoosh isn't a shawl -- it's a shroud.
----- IFAW
Poaching is the most serious threat to the chiru. It is being slaughtered illegally by the thousands for its wool (actually, the underfur of the chiru), which is known in the international market as "shahtoosh" or "king of wool." Shahtoosh is considered to be one of the finest animal fibers in the world and, since the 1980s, expensive shahtoosh shawls and scarves have become high fashion status symbols in the West, selling for as much as US$10,000 each. Several chirus are killed to provide wool for a single shawl. (Collection of the underfur causes the death of the chiru.) Estimates of 20,000 Tibetan antelopes being killed annually for commercial shahtoosh have been recorded.
Wool is smuggled from Tibet mainly to Kashmir in India, where it is woven into an extremely fine fabric from which the shawls and scarves are woven. Although the chiru is protected in China, it is still legal to weave shahtoosh in India.
Other threats to the chiru include habitat loss due to the expansion of domestic livestock herding, fencing of rangeland, and economic development. Their horns are also used in traditional medicine in China.
(www.animalinfo.org)
