It belongs to the Bovidae family of Artiodactyla order, with the Latin scientific name of Bos mutus, and English name, Yak.
Its body shape is like that ofhomeyak, but much larger, with particularly lofty shoulders. It is 200 to 280 centimeters inbody length, 160 to 180 centimeters in shoulder height, and over 500 kilograms in body weight. Both the male and female have horns, four stubby limbs, large and round hoofs, with small hoof nail points that are particularly hard. Its head and back hair is short and smooth, but the hair on larynx, neck, abdomen, body side and tail is long, with the belly hair up to 70 centimeters. It is dark brownish black all over except that the nose and mouth are rounded with some white hair.
It is a typical tableland animal, living in tableland zones at an elevation of 3,000 to 6,000meters. In winter it moves to lower places, and in summer returns to alpine belt. It leads a group life, moving about in the morning and dusk, with tens of heads in a group, while the female and juvenile ones usually group into a colony with tens of heads, sometimes even up to a few hundred heads. Adult males usually gad alone, or in groups of two and three. It feeds on grass and lichen, resistant to cold and able to endure hunger. Its estrus and mating period is in September, with males drastically scrabbling for females. The gestation period lasts about 9 months. It has one fetus every 2 years, one baby per fetus. The longest lifespan is 25 years. In estrous period, male wild yaks sometimes intrude home yak group to proceed mating and produce calf; sometimes they even spiriting away" home yaks, causing it to be wild.
It is distributed in Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region.The estimated quantity is about several tens of thousand heads. Wild Yak has been listed in Appendix I ofInternational Trade Convention on Endangered Wild Animal and Plant Species.
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