Yak

This article is about the animal. See Yakovlev for the aircraft and Jeff Minter for the game designer.

The yak (Bos grunniens) is a long-haired humped domestic bovine found in Tibet and throughout the Himalayan region of south central Asia. The word yak refers to the male of the species; a female is a dri or nak.

Wild yak stand about two meters tall at the shoulder. Domestic yak are about half that height. Both types have long shaggy hair to insulate them from the cold. Wild yak can be either brown or black. Domesticated ones can also be white. Yak milk is pink.

Domesticated yak are kept primarily for their milk and meat; they are also used as beasts of burden, transporting goods across mountain passes for local farmers and traders as well as in support of climbing and trekking expeditions. Often the pack animals are actually crossbreeds of the yak and Bos taurus (common domestic cattle). These are known in Tibetan as dzo or dzopkyo.

It is a known fact that unlike the cows, the yak grunts rather than mooing. Owing to the fact that many of them are killed for food by the Tibetans, the wild yak has become an endangered species.