The northern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is arid and barren. The Altun Mountain Reserve with an average altitude of 4,500 meters is home to many tenacious lives, such as Tibetan antelope, Tibetan wild ass and wild yak, so this no-man's land is also full of life. .
Tibetan antelope: a unique animal of my country's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a national first-level protected animal. Because the male Tibetan antelope has a pair of beautiful black horns about 60 centimeters long, which are well-proportioned, slender and slightly curved, and powerful and free-spirited, it is also called "long-horned sheep".
Tibetan antelopes are the best runners and can gallop at a speed of 60 meters per hour in high altitude areas. But its lifespan is the shortest among large mammals. Under normal circumstances, the lifespan of males is only 7 to 8 years, and the lifespan of females is no more than 12 years. Therefore, although the Tibetan antelope population is large, it is also very fragile and will be difficult to recover once its source is endangered.
The living habits of Tibetan antelopes are that males and females usually live in groups separately. Only in the cold winter, when they enter the estrus period, will they come to a specific area and form a temporary family with a male sheep leading several or even a dozen female sheep. When the pregnant female sheep are about to give birth, the female sheep will collectively leave home with their babies and move to a remote place to give birth.
When giving birth, female sheep often choose a remote leeward place, create a small pit with their hind hooves and squat down, with another female sheep standing next to them as a guard. After a few minutes, the lamb is born. The ewe will slowly stand up and lick the lamb lovingly all over. This is the most primitive and simple holiness of life. After about ten minutes, the lamb was able to stand up and nurse.
After the birth, the sheep mothers will return to their hometown all the way back to their hometown with their newly born lambs. During this period, the male sheep stayed in groups in their perennial habitat and lived a leisurely bachelor life, while the female sheep took on all the tasks of giving birth and raising offspring.
Muztage Peak is the highest peak in Xinjiang, with an altitude of about 7,000 meters. It is an important breeding ground for Tibetan antelope clusters. About 10,000 to 15,000 Tibetan antelopes gather here to give birth every summer. Poachers have also noticed this pattern and often come here to wait for Tibetan antelopes during the calving period. Man-made illegal gold mining and poaching have had a significant impact on the habits of Tibetan antelopes. For example, in the early 1990s, female sheep were not afraid of people when they were giving birth. Even if a car passed by just 10 meters away, it would turn a blind eye. But now as long as it sees people from a distance, it will run away from a few hundred meters away.
In recent years, through the unremitting efforts of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration and other departments, the management system and mechanism have been gradually improved. The management and protection strength, scientific research monitoring, legal protection efforts, environmental conditions, etc. have continued to improve, and Tibetan antelope protection has made significant progress. As a result, the population of Tibetan antelopes distributed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in my country has recovered from more than 70,000 in the 1980s to more than 300,000. The Tibetan antelopes have truly returned to becoming the masters of this green plateau.
