Asia is the centre for wild cattle diversity, with the Gaur, Banteng and Kouprey to name a few. Of these, the wild yak (Bos grunniens or Poephagus grunniens) is the only wild cattle species that has adapted itself comfortably to severe weather conditions and harsh unforgiving terrain, thriving in mountainous areas with temperatures that can fall below minus 40 degrees Celsius.
Yet wild yaks cope well with the forbidding environs it calls home, thanks to the gifts nature has bestowed it. This shaggy-haired ungulate has a dense undercoat of soft, close-matted hair with dark brown or black outer guard hairs to protect it from the cold. It also has sturdy limbs, enhancing its ability to clamber nimbly over rough terrain and steep slopes. It has rather long legs for its size, probably another adaptation to ease walking in deep snow, and enlarged hooves which help in navigate swampy terrain during the summer months. It has great lung capacity and even its blood cells allow for greater capacity to carry oxygen, a crucial adaptations as lives at extremely high altitudes of more than 6,000-metres above sea-level. Yaks travel great distances in search of food, which is often scarce in its mountainous home.
Once widespread in China, India, Bhutan and Nepal, the wild yak is currently found only in China and in the extreme northern tip of India, representing a range reduction of more than half in the past century alone. Wild yaks once congregated in herds said to number in the thousands – in 1891, William Rockhill (the first American to attempt the trek to Lhasa), described the hillsides as being “literally black with yak; they could be seen by the thousands”.
Today, wild yak populations are primarily restricted to a chain of mountains extending from eastern Kashmir at the northern tip of India, along the border of Sinkiang and Tibet and into the Chinese province of Qinghai. Near the eastern edge of the present range in Qinghai rests a 3,900 square-kilometre area called ‘Wild Yak Valley’, where there are a reported 1,200 resident wild yaks; there are also another reported 1,500 wild yaks in a more westerly part of that same province. A small population also remains in the Changchenmo Valley of Ladakh in India.
