The Wild Yak
Bos mutus

wild yak

"Another [curiosity] is the wild kutas [yak]. This is a very wild and ferocious beast. In whatever manner it attacks one it proves fatal: whether it strike with its horns, or kick, or overthrow its victim. If it has no opportunity of doing any of these things, it tosses its enemy with its tongue, twenty gaz into the air, and he is dead before reaching the ground. One male kutas is a load for twelve horses. One man cannot possibly raise a shoulder of the animal. In the days of my forays I killed a kutas, and divided it among seventy persons, when each had sufficient flesh for four days. This animal is not to be met with outside the country of Tibet."

From the Tarikh-i-Rashidi of Mirza Muhammad Haidar (16th c. AD)

Description

Wild yaks are the ancestors of domestic yaks. They are larger than domestic yaks. Males can weigh up to 2000 lbs. and measure 6 feet at the shoulder. Female wild yaks weigh approximatiely 800 lbs. Coloration is mostly black or dark brown, with the exception of the fabled golden wild yak.

Habitat and Population

The last of the wild yaks live in the remote alpine tundra and ice desert regions of the Tibetan Plateau, mostly in the Chang Tang Reserve (70,179,240 acres). Here the altitude is 13,000 - 20,000 ft., and the temperature can fall below -40°F. Annual precipitation amounts from 4 to 12 inches, falling mostly as hail or snow, and leaving little surface water. Grasses and low shrubs make up the sparce vegetation. There are few wild yaks found in India and Nepal.

In 1995 there were about 15,000 wild yaks living according to renowned zoologist, George Schaller from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Approximately 7,000-7,500 were in the Chang Tang Reserve; 3,200–3,700 in Qinghai Province; 2,000–2,500 in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. There is a downward population trend of the wild yak. Today there is less than 10,000 wild yaks in the world.
Schaller in litt. to Hedges 1991 and 1995, Miller et al. 1994, Schaller and Liu Wulin 1996.

map of Tibetan Plateau wild yak region

Threats

Illegal hunting

"Though shot over and over by an enthusiastic Kirghiz caravaner with a rifle, it only fell after the seventh bullet went home. The caravaner left it for dead and went to get his fellows. When they arrived at the spot a day later, they found the yak bull had gotten up and walked away. They followed it. When they got within shot of the bull, it turned and faced them. They shot it again, which enraged it to such fury that it charged straight at them--they were about to beat a hasty retreat, when it halted, grunted and rolled its eyes and flung up such sand with its nose and horns that it was enveloped in a huge cloud of dust, all the while lashing its sides furiously with its tail. Only after three more bullets were fired into the beast did it fall down and die."

Sven Hedin (Through Asia, vol 1)

Only after three more bullets were fired into the beast did it fall down and die
Habitat destruction
The increasing human population in Tibet causes increased demands on the land with the constrction of roads, mining, and poor grazing practices which diminish the grasslands.

Interbreeding with domestic yaks
There are 4 million domestic yaks in Tibet. When wild yaks come in contact with domestic yaks they interbreed and waste their reproductive energy on offspring that are no longer wild yaks. Domestic yaks may also carry diseases for which wild yaks have no immunity against.

Low fertility
In 1990 George Schaller found that a very small proportion of wild yaks were young animals of that year in an area of the Chang Tang Reserve. The following year there were even fewer, only 1% of a population n=315. It has not been determined whether this reproduction failure was due to a disease such as brucellosis which causes spontaneous abortion in cattle, or due to high levels of postpartum mortality.
(Schaller and Gu Binyuan 1994).

Conservation Measures

Wild yaks were on the endangered species list until 1994. Today they are considered "vulnerable" (face a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future) according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

In China, wild yaks have been protected since 1962.

In India the species receives total protection under The Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.

"WCS biologist George Schaller reports surprising increase in Tibet's wildlife", June 19, 2003:
"Schaller who visited the Tibetan Plateau earlier this spring, says that local populations of ... wild yak have increased from previous surveys he had taken ten years earlier around the Chang Tang Reserve, an enormous wildlife sanctuary WCS helped create in 1993."

"...But Schaller reported that ten years later [spring, 2003], Tibet's Forest Department has clearly made protection of wildlife a priority. "Protection of wildlife in the region has greatly improved during the past decade. Patrols search for poachers, guns have been confiscated, and education has created awareness about wildlife laws among nomads and officials," said Schaller. "The Tibet Forestry Department has obviously made a dedicated and successful effort to protect wildlife in the area."

"...However, Schaller warned that with wildlife populations stable or increasing, Tibet's Forestry Department must now manage species to reduce conflicts with the growing human population in the area. For example, wild yaks sometimes attack and kill people during their rut in August and September, resulting in problem animals being shot. This could be largely prevented by educating people to keep a safe distance from bulls during the mating season."
-Wildlife Conservation Society