Shahtoosh
Shahtoosh is wool obtained from chiru fur.
As undomesticated wild animals, the chirus cannot be shorn, so they are killed for this purpose. 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. Since 2016, they have been classified as a near threatened species, due to species conservation programs and partial recovery of population size. 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. On the black market, shahtoosh shawls fetch prices ranging from $5,000 to $20,000.
Properties
The average fiber diameter of the down hair is 11.45 microns with a standard deviation of 1.78 microns and a coefficient of variation of 15.55%, and a span from 6.25 to 16.25 microns. Because of the small fiber diameter, the down hair of the chirus is the finest of all animal hairs. The down hair is wavy and mosaic scaled with a scale spacing of 5.3 scales per 100 microns. The scale width tapers in the upward direction of the hair to the next scale ring. At the scale edge, the hair is thicker, making the fiber diameter uneven along the length of the hair. The hair of the chirus is beige to gray, and white on the belly. Only 12-14 % of the down hair is white and more expensive. The lighter the hair color, the lighter the shades that can be dyed.The guard hairs are separated from the down hair by sorting. 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. Due to tiny air bubbles in the hair, the guard hairs of shahtoosh show a pattern like laid stone slabs under a light microscope. This allows shahtoosh to be distinguished from cashmere wool products under a light microscope, where guard hairs of cashmere wool look like dark stripes with light-colored edges.
Use
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. The wool of three to five animals is needed for a scarf, as each chiru produces only about 125-150 grams of the raw wool. Therefore, the population of about one million in the 1950s dropped drastically to an estimated 45,000 or 75,000 and recovered to about 150,000 animals by 2009 due to species protection. The wool is shipped from the Tibetan Changtang area to Kashmir in India, where it is processed into scarves in the Srinagar area. In 2003, it was estimated that 14,293 people were directly or indirectly involved in the production of shahtoosh shawls. Efforts are underway in India to domesticate some chirus so that shorn shahtoosh can be legally used.Shahtoosh wool is spun and woven, either in rectangular plain weave or diamond-shaped plain weave. Shahtoosh shawls can be pulled through a ring due to the small diameter of the fibers, although this also applies to thinly woven shawls made from other wools. By admixing pashmina, shahtoosh can be embroidered more extensively. Blended fabrics of shahtoosh and pashmina are designated differently according to the proportions: Shurah Dani = 100% Shahtoosh, Bah Dani = 75% Shahtoosh and 25% Pashmina, Aeth Dani = 50% Shahtoosh and 50% Pashmina. Shawls for women are often 2 m × 1 m in size and weigh circa 100 g, while shawls for men are often 3 m × 1.5 m.