Breathtaking Eco-Thriller: 'Kekexili'

By Bob Mondello

Published April 25, 2006 at 2:00 PM MDT

High in the mountains of Tibet, a life-and-death struggle has been raging nearly unnoticed for decades. It involves roving groups of poachers, a small band of volunteers, and antelope that once numbered in the millions.

The region's story has inspired a Chinese film, Kekexili: Mountain Patrol. NPR's Bob Mondello calls it an environmental thriller.

Bob Mondello

Bob Mondello, who jokes that he was a jinx at the beginning of his critical career — hired to write for every small paper that ever folded in Washington, just as it was about to collapse — saw that jinx broken in 1984 when he came to NPR.

See stories by Bob Mondello