根據研究藏羚羊超過20年的生物專家指出，曾經被偷獵者大量補殺並製成奢華的沙圖什披肩買賣販售的瀕危藏羚羊，數量似乎正在慢慢增加當中。
最近隨著一支1000英里探險隊重返西藏並橫跨偏遠的藏東地區，野生物保育協會（WCS）生物學家夏勒（George Schaller）表示，他發現當地方言稱作Chiru的藏羚羊，數量比他預期中更多，而羚羊數量增加是由於有效的強制禁止補獵措施，以及當地團體的保育道德意識越來越高漲相互作用之下的成果。
夏勒也指出，「中國在控制捕獵活動方面做了很大的努力，在1990年代，曾查獲最大的捕獵集團偷獵藏羚羊毛皮高達600隻或更多，但現在都不再發生。」而根據夏勒過去在藏東保護區的研究調查顯示，藏羚羊的數量已從1991年約3900隻增加到2003年的5890隻。
The endangered Tibetan antelope, once slaughtered by poachers for the trade in luxury shahtoosh shawls, appears be increasing in numbers, according to a biologist who has studied the species for more than 20 years.
Returning from a recent 1,000 mile expedition across Tibet's remote Chang Tang region, Wildlife Conservation Society biologist George Schaller says he found larger numbers than he expected of the antelope, Pantholops hodgsonii, known locally as chiru. Schaller says the increase is due to a combination of better enforcement and a growing conservation ethic in local communities.
"China has made a major effort to control poaching," said Schaller. "The large poaching gangs of the 1990s, which were at times arrested with 600 or more chiru hides have largely ceased to exist." According to Schaller's past surveys in the Chang Tang Reserve, populations of chiru there have risen from an estimated 3,900 in 1991 to 5,890 in 2003.
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