Chinese experts oppose the suggestion of raising Tibetan antelope in captivity as a way to protect this rare wild species from extinction.

As Tibetan antelope is under the threat of rampant poaching and degenerated living environment, some people advised that the government should breed the animal in captive cultivation program, just like the way of raising pandas.

"This is a dangerous idea," said Zhang Li, the chief representative of International Fund for Animal Welfare, a China office, at a conference attended by China's Qinghai Province and Xinjiang Uygur and Tibet autonomous regions opened Sunday in Xinjiang's capital city of Urumqi.

"So long as the captive breeding is put into practice, poaching will be stimulated greatly. As a result, wild Tibetan antelope may face extinction," he said.

Xie Yan, the project officer of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) China office said, unlike panda, a kind of species which greatly relies on man's protection, including copulation to ensure its survival, Tibetan antelope is a kind of animal with outstanding evolution advantages. "Tibetan antelope can care about itself well if without human interference."

The Tibetan antelope, an endangered species at the top of China's protection list, is native to the grasslands of China's Qinghai, Xinjiang and Tibet. The three areas have the world's major Tibetan antelope habitats.

The population of the animal shrank sharply last century, mainly due to rampant poaching and the degeneration of living environment. International traffickers to make shahtoosh shawls, a luxury item that uses the fur of three to five Tibetan antelopes to make just one.

Dr. George Schaller from WCS carried out a 10-year survey on Tibetan antelopes and other wildlife in Tibet since 1985. According to his calculation, chiru, or Tibetan antelope, population has shockingly dropped from millions at the turn of the 20th century to only about 75,000 due to aggressive poaching. At present, no exact chiru number is available.

Since 1979, the Tibetan antelope has been recognized as a threatened species and protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act of India. It has also been classified as Appendix I in the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which means that any trade of the animal and its products is banned. Since 1989, the animal has been listed as Class I protected animal in China's Wildlife Protection Law.

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2005)