The population of endangered wild animals, such as Tibetan antelopes and Chinese gazelle, has increased sharply in northwest China's Qinghai plateau thanks to protection efforts over the past few decades.

The number of Tibetan antelopes has risen to around 50,000 from less than 20,000 in the late 1980s in the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve in the southwest of Qinghai Province, according to Gao Jingyu, Qinghai Wild Animal Bureau director.

Poachers were the biggest threat to the rare antelopes as their fur could be used in shawls that sold for up to US$11,000.

The number of Przewalski's gazelle, or Chinese gazelle, was now more than 600 from less than 200 in the late 1980s in the Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve. The gazelle is the most endangered hoofed mammal species in the world.

The number of black-necked crane, also on the country's top protection list, has risen to 156, up from 26, in the Longbao Nature Reserve.

The province set up its first nature reserve -- Qinghai Lake --in the mid 1970s for the protection of wild fowl. A number of other nature reserves have since been built.

Currently, a third of the 720,000-square-kilometer province is nature reserve areas, according to Gao.

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2008)