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Workers of Hoh Xil Nature Reserve Administration prepare to burn Tibetan antelope hides confiscated from poachers in Golmud, in northwest China's Qinghai province, October 22, 2009.
Animal protection authorities burned 2,282 Tibetan antelope hides confiscated from poachers in the past 10 years to show resolution against the killing of the rare species. Over the past decade, more than 4,000 Tibetan antelope skins have been confiscated.
Tibetan antelopes have been given the highest level of protection under the United Nations' Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species since 1979, and listed among the most endangered species by the Chinese government since 1988. To curb the rampant slaughter of Tibetan antelopes, and save them from extinction, the Chinese government set up the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve in 1995, and upgraded it to a state-listed reserve in 1997. The Nature Reserve, in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, covers 45,000-sq km with an average altitude of 4,600 meters.[Xinhua]
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