The number of Tibetan antelopes in China has quadrupled in the past decades, reaching about 300,000 from fewer than 70,000 in the 1980s and 1990s when illegal hunting raged, according to the country's National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

Tibetan antelopes are mostly found in the Tibet autonomous region, Qinghai province and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in the northwest. The species is under first-class state protection in China.

The Sanjiangyuan National Park in Qinghai is a major biodiversity cluster sheltering a considerable number of Tibetan antelopes as well as many other wild animals.

Sanjiangyuan, meaning the "source of three rivers", is home to the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers. The ecological system has been steadily improving in recent years in the Sanjiangyuan National Park as it becomes a habitat for an increasing number of wild animals.

"The vegetation productivity has increased by about 30 percent, compared to that in 2000," said Zhao Xinquan, academic dean of the Sanjiangyuan National Park Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). "And the biodiversity is being restored rapidly, which comes along with the growing numbers of several starring species. The population of Tibetan antelopes here is about two to three times as large as 20 years ago. And the numbers of Tibetan donkeys, wild yaks and Thorold's deer have been increasing at a similar speed."

Thriving amid an ever-expanding herd in Qinghai, Xinjiang and Tibet, the Tibetan antelope has been regraded to "Near Threatened" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

"The protection level [toward the Tibetan antelope] is going down, so is its conservation status as an endangered animal. This is a very good trend. Hopefully, this species will not need our particular protection anymore someday in the future," Zhao said.