Poaching endangers Mongolian gazelle
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Xinhua, December 23, 2011
About 100,000 Mongolian gazelle, about 10 percent of the animal's total population, are killed annually by poachers, local media reported Thursday.
The Mongolian gazelle is usually considered as a species with a large population but excessive poaching has overwhelmed the animal's population beyond recovery.
In the 1950s, the Mongolian gazelle was widely dispersed over some 1.2 million square kilometers, but by the turn of the millennium the animal was only distributed in less than 190,000 square kilometers, the report said.
The report cited increased human activities as another major threat to the gazelle's survival. More and more roads, railway tracks, residential settlements, and mining sites have blocked the gazelles' traditional migratory paths and made them scatter in isolated areas and become more vulnerable to seasonal variations, the report said.
Specialists suggest the government should strengthen law enforcement to combat poaching in remote areas.
