The annual migration of the Tibetan antelope (chiru) is one of the great wildlife spectacles of Asia. Every spring, tens of thousands of pregnant females leave their winter grazing grounds and trek hundreds of kilometres northward across Hoh Xil to calving grounds in the flat, sheltered basins of the plateau's interior. The migration peaks in late June and early July, when the females give birth to their young, and then turns south again, with the new calves in tow, through August.
The migration is visible from the Qinghai-Tibet Highway where it crosses the eastern edge of the reserve. Travellers on the highway in late June or July may see herds of dozens or even hundreds of chiru moving across the plateau in loose, purposeful groups — tan-coloured females with the characteristic white facial blaze, moving at a steady trot across the flat grassland. The males, with their dramatic recurved horns, do not participate in the migration — they winter and summer in different areas. Stopping at a safe distance to watch a large herd pass is one of the most affecting wildlife experiences in China, the more so because the recovery of these animals was so hard-won.