藏獒身价一落千丈

choi

杰安迪, 中国富人不再眷顾，藏獒身价一落千丈. 纽约时报中文网, Apr 19, 2015
cn.nytimes.com/china/20150419/c19dogs/

, which is translated from

Andrew Jacobs, Huge, Shaggy Victims of China’s Latest Bubble. New York Times, Apr 18, 2015.

Quote:

"China’s boom-to-bust luxury landscape is strewn with devalued commodities like black Audis, Omega watches, top-shelf sorghum liquor and high-rise apartments in third-tier cities. Some are the victims of a slowing economy, while others are casualties of an official austerity campaign that has made ostentatious consumption a red flag for anticorruption investigators. Then there is the Tibetan mastiff

"In some ways, the cooling passion for Tibetan mastiffs reflects the fickleness of a consuming class that adopts and discards new products with abandon.

"Nomadic families have long used mastiffs as nocturnal sentries against livestock thieves and marauding wolves. A primitive breed with a deep guttural bark, they are inured to harsh winters and the thin oxygen of the high-altitude grasslands; like wolves, females give birth only once a year. * * * Tibetan mastiffs are loyal to a fault, increasing the likelihood of attacks on strangers

Note:
(a) "Liz FLORA 富沙白, editor in chief of Jing Daily, a marketing research company in Beijing"

Jing Daily; The business of luxury & culture in China. 精日传媒
jingdaily.com

(b) "Li Qun 李群, a professor at Nanjing Agricultural University 南京农业大学 and an expert on Tibetan mastiffs [said,] 'By 2013, the market was saturated with crossbreeds' ”

(c) "like wolves, [Tibetan mastiff] females give birth only once a year"
(i) Tibetan mastiff
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Mastiff
("It is one of the few primitive dog breeds that retains a single estrus per year instead of two, even at much lower altitudes and in much more temperate climates than its native climate. This characteristic is also found in wild canids such as the wolf. Since its estrus usually takes place during late fall, most Tibetan Mastiff puppies are born between December and January")
(ii) gray wolf
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_wolf
(generally monogamous for life; Unlike the coyote, the gray wolf never reaches reproductive senescence; Estrus typically occurs in late winter; The gestation period lasts 62–75 days, with pups usually being born in the summer period)