The Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Lavers

suggests that the cartazon’s horn was derived from the chiru and not from the creature that supplied medieval unicorns with 2-m-long white or ivory-coloured horns. Rings would seem to be the best translation. See Lavers (1999). 10 How can a superabundance of animal life survive in Tibet when there is apparently so little to eat? While vegetation is often sparse the plateau is immense, so the amount of vegetation available to grazing animals in total is huge. The trick for Tibetan mammals is to be wherever the food is. Herds of Tibetan animals move around the plateau, eating whatever they can find as they go. The immense herds of wildebeest that follow the rains backwards and forwards across the savannahs of Africa use the same ecological strategy. 11 Chiru, kiang and wild yak still exist on the plateau, though in much reduced numbers (see Schaller 1998 for a recent assessment). At the time of writing the situation appears to be improving a little as a result of conservation measures implemented by the Chinese government. 12 Gotfredsen (1999). 13 There is an eighth reference to a one-horned animal in the Bible, but it is a supernatural beast that emerges from a different tradition and set of concerns. The prophet Daniel had a vision of a two-horned ram that swung its head violently from side to side so that no one could get near it. He continues (Daniel 8. 5–7): ‘And as I was considering [the ram/the situation], behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole ea