Tibet Transects: The Northern Plateau

  Changtang and Kekexili Nature Reserves, China
Saturday, August 19, 2006

In the northern reaches of Tibet is a vast high altitude grassland stretching from Namtso just north of Lhasa into Qinghai and west towards Kashmir and Ladakh in India. These lands are known as the Changtang, meaning Northern Plateau, a landscape of wildlife and few people.





The Changtang is essentially a basin and range landscape, with mountains and their streams surrounding salt lakes. Surrounding this basin and range landscape, however, are the sources of rivers such as the Yangtze, which begins high in the mountains in Kekexili, a remote red sandstone landscape in Qinghai province.



Few people live in Kekexili because of its inhospitable landscape. For much of the year, frosts, snows, and cold winds characterize the area. When the snows thaw, quicksand becomes as hazard. The sandy soils quickly drain any rain that falls--Kekexili is a high-altitude desert.

A few more people live in the adjacent Changtang, where soils are better for yaks, sheep, and goats. Still, the area is one of the most remote places on earth. Even in the summer, snow falls in the hills and mountains.

Partially because of its harsh climate, the Changtang and Kekexili support a simle yet remarkable food web of creatures.

At the base of the food web are the few plant species that survive the harsh environmental conditions. Mainly these are grasses, such as Purple Feathergrass, or sedges, which store much of their energy away from the elements, more safely underground.





But even there, they are not safe as Black-lipped Pika and Himalayan Marmots dig underground and can feast on the roots when the green grasses turn brown and a mat of ice and snow covers the plateau. These wary animals are the keystone species for the Changtang--their burrows are home for insects, spiders, and birds and they are major prey for the wolves, foxes, and raptors.

Aboveground the grasses and sedges are food for Wild Asses, Tibetan Gazelles, Blue Sheep, Wild Yak, Tibetan Wooly Hares, White-lipped Deer, Argali Sheep, and Tibetan Antelope. In turn, Snow Leopards and Tibetan Wolves prey on many of these species.





In the wetlands and around the lakes, Black-necked cranes make their summer home along with Bar-headed Geese, Ruddy Sheldrakes and a wide variety of wetland birds.





To protect these species, the largest nature reserve complex in the world was established with the help of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), managers of the Bronx and other New York zoos, where I saw my first Snow Leopard. The nature reserves include Changtang Nature Reserve and Kekexili Nature Reserve and are the size of New Mexico. George Shaller of WCS, who was a character in Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, studied the Tibetan Antelope, called Chiru in Tibetan, and other species, prompting a call to protect them from extinction.

One of the main threats to the Chiru was poaching, in part to make scarves from their dense and soft fur, known as shatoosh. Soon, world-wide attention led to legally protecting the species and protecting its habitat.

With such a large area designated as a nature reserve, the Chiru and other species of the Northern Plateau seemed protected into the future.