Lisa Muller, age 14, of Beaumont, Texas, for her question:

WHAT IS AN ONAGER?

Onager is the name of a fast running animal that is related to the donkey. It is actually the wild ass that is mentioned in the Bible.

A biblical reference describing the beast is found in Job 39: 5 8.

"Who hath sent out the wild ass free or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture and he searcheth after every green thing."

The onager    pronounced ahn uh jer    lives in herds on the very hot, dry plains of west central Asia. Its color varies from yellow brown in the winter to a soft cinnamon brown in summer.

About 4 feet high at the shoulders, the onager has a thick mane and also a little tuft of hair at the end of its tail.

The onager is a member of the horse family Equide. Its genus is Equus, its species hemionus, in case you want to call it by its full scientific name.

A very closely related wild donkey is called the kiang. This beast is found in the wilds of Tibet and Mongolia.

And still another close relative is the wild ass of Ethiopia and northern Africa. It is this animal that is the ancestor of the common domestic donkey. This wild ass looks very much like a zebra but has no stripes.

Thousands of years ago the wild ass was domesticated by man. The animals were sturdier than horses although they were much smaller. They did not require as much food as horses, and they were very good workers.

Female donkeys give milk often used by man. In northern Africa, natives once kept donkeys in large herds for just this purpose.

A female donkey is called a jenny or a jennet and the male is called a jack. The young offspring is called a colt.

If a jack is mated with a mare    or female horse    the offspring is a mule.

A cross between a jenny and a stallion    a male horse    is called a hinny.

Small donkeys are called burros and are often used as pack animals because they are extremely dependable and very sure footed.

The wild ass of North Africa is about the same size as the onager but its coat of hair is gray with a darker line along its back. Both animals are swift.