Although yaks were hypothesized to diverse from cattle around one to five million years ago, the ancestor for cattle, Aurochs, are not the ancestors of yaks. The yak is said to be more closely related to the Bison than other members of its genus, and therefore may share a common ancestor, Bison Antiquus.
The hump on Bison Antiquus is made of muscles with the vertebrae running through it. The purpose of this hump is to provide the motion swing of the heads when clearing out snow in winter. They use the muscles on the hump, which weighs around 20 to 35 kilograms, to maneuver their head and horns as a shovel to clear their path.
Comparing the legs to the body, the Bison Antiquus has relatively short legs. This plays an important role in keeping…show more content… They also have a dense undercoat of a wooly material over the chest, thighs, and flanks to act as a heat insulator from the cold. The udder in females and scrotum in males are also extremely. Due to the cold and harsh climates that yaks face yearly, they must have optimal protection against these weather conditions.
The yak has four very short legs and rounded hooves. Because the yak lives in mountain ranged areas such as Tibet, yaks have developed short legs that helps climb rocky terrains and rounded hooves with large dew claws that grips to the terrain.
Mother yaks take care of their calves and protect them from predators by abandoning males in valley bottoms and take their young to search for food on steep mountains. Mother Yaks tend to take their young to slopes that are around 5000 meters average. The high altitude environments suits mothers and females, and the high humid meadows provide the yaks with food that contains higher protein.
Social Groups
Yaks are animals that typically like to travel in groups, and they usually gather in numbers less than 100, however, smaller groups ranging from 10-20 yaks can also be found. Some adult males travel with the female and the young, some form groups of 2-5 and travel separately. Females also tend to gather with their young separately to migrate to higher…show more content… Yaks also secrete a sticky substance when sweating that keeps their under hair matted and act as extra insulation.
Due to its large size and climate difficulties, the yak needs to carry oxygen more effectively than other animals such as cattle. As a result, their blood cells are half the size of blood cells in cattle and three times or more numerous.
Wild Yaks can be found in Western China, northern India, Nepal and parts of Mongolia. Domesticated yaks are kept in the high plateaus and mountains of central Asia.
The wild yak typically lives on hills, plains, treeless uplands, and mountains. The height of these habitats ranged from 3200m to 5400m. Wild yaks are most commonly found in alpine meadows with thick sedges and grasses.
The domesticated yak has no predators as they are protected and cared for by Tibetans. It was historically known that wild yaks were hunted by the Tibetan wolf, reports now show that their young are also hunted by brown bears and snow leopards
Due to the domestication of the yak, future yaks have the possibility of evolving some alike of cattle. They may shrink in size and unused body parts will be diminished. Their names are Bos Resilio, or
