Living on top of the world
Yaks live higher than almost any other large mammal, up to 6,000 metres.
Asian mountains
Wild yak
Bos mutus
A huge, shaggy, dark-brown ox with a hump, long curved horns and a skirt of hair almost to the ground.
- Size
- Up to 2m at the shoulder
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- The Tibetan plateau, above 4,000 metres
Plods after you, head low. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Yak
Good to know
Six things about the yak
Big lungs
Their lungs and heart are far bigger than a cow's, to get enough oxygen from thin air.
A double coat
A woolly undercoat and long outer hair keep it warm at minus 40 degrees.
Too hot lower down
A yak begins to suffer from heat above about 15 degrees.
Grunts, not moos
Yaks grunt. The tame yak's Latin name means grunting ox.
Everything from a yak
Tame yaks give Tibetan people milk, butter, wool, transport and even fuel: dried dung for the fire.
The real thing
Photos of the yak
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Tame yaks are everywhere in Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. Wild ones are bigger, darker and much rarer, on remote parts of the plateau.
How to help
Wild yaks are vulnerable. Large protected areas on the Tibetan plateau, such as Chang Tang, are what keep them going.
Keep going