What kind of animal is the yak?
T o our eyes, the yak is a very sorry sight. He is a big, . ragged saggy fellow, too slow to have any fun, too lazy to be any use or so it seems. Our opinion of the yak, however, may be colored by the fact we are used to more sprightly cattle. But there are faraway places where the yak is a loved and treasured animal. In fact, the people of these regions could not possibly get along without the help of the big, saggy fellow.
The big, raggedy yak lives on the top of the world, among the high Himalayas that surround the country of Tibet. He is a member of the cattle clan and could be mistaken for the American bison in disguise. However,, he may be bigger than a bison, for he sometimes stands six feet to 8 at shoulder level, His horns, too, are much larger than those of a bison. They grow out; from the sides of his head and then turn upward.
The coat of the bison is so amazing that you want to pull it to make sure that it is not a disguise,, The soft, silky hair, often clotted with tassels of dirt, is so long that it reaches the ground. Fringes of this dark hair dip down from his sides and cover his feet.
Since he is a member of the cattle clan, the yak is a grazer and a cud chewer. In the wild state, he forages through the summer months on lofty slopes maybe 20,000 feet above sea level. In the winter, he descends with his herd to around 15,000 feet.
The tame yak is somewhat smaller than his wild relative, but just as raggedy. The Tibetans use his soft hair to weave cloth and rope. They use yak milk to make butter and, if you visit a home in Tibet, you most likely will be served tea with yak butter Instead of milk.
The sturdy animal can pull a plow and carry a heavy load. He can travel up steep grades and tote his burdens along dangerous mountain trails where no other animal could go. True, he is never in a hurry to get his work done. But life in Tibet at the top of the world is leisurely and no one expects speed from the bulky yak.
By nature, the big fellow is quite gentle and as a rule he does his chores without complaining. But when his burden is too heavy or tied too tightly, he makes a grunting noise. For this reason, the shaggy yak is known as the grunting ox.
In the wild, the mother yaks stay herded together with their calves. There may be ten to 100 members in a herd, but none of them will be grown males. The bull yak usually leads a lonely life by himself. The calves are born in the fall, soon after the mothers descended to their winter pastures on the wind swept slopes of the lofty Himalayas.