Shahtoosh

Due to the severe decline of the chiru population by 90% in the second half of the 20th century, they were internationally classified as a critically endangered species until 2016.

[1] The wool is mostly used to make luxurious scarves and shawls, although the production, sale, and acquisition of shahtoosh has been illegal under CITES since 1979.

However, due to the fineness and low tensile strength of the fiber, sorting can only be done manually and incompletely, resulting in guard hairs in scarves.

[1] The animals, which live wild on the Tibetan Plateau, the Changtang region, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Qinghai and are under species protection, are killed for the illegal production of textiles in order to obtain the particularly fine warming wool hair of the undercoat.

[6] An investigation on a 1994 charity event in New York by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service led to the subpoenaing of celebrities who purchased shahtoosh scarves, as well as the first criminal cases for the sale of this material in the US.

[10] In April 2000, British authorities fined a London-based trading company for the illegal possession of 138 scarves.

[1] Despite some successful arrests of illegal trafficking rings, a large number of "petty criminals" get away with it, as it is usually claimed to be pashmina or similar legal fabrics.

Under Emperor Akbar, the imperial wardrobe began to utilize Tus or Shahtoos on a large scale.