Out of Tibet—Highlights of the Yak’s Journey to the New World-2nd edition (Author’s note-I wrote this in 2012-2013, the result of five years of research on the topic of yaks. It was originally posted on the IYAK website as an interactive paper with active links to the references mentioned throughout. A couple years ago, it was turned into a shortened print version sans links, the version that appeared in the Grunting Ox publication distributed at the National Western Stock Show in 2014. That version, in PDF form, was later posted to the new, improved IYAK website—and the version with links was no longer accessible to the public. Hopefully I will be able to revive that sometime in 2018.--Dianne Borealis Latona, December 5, 2017) Yak look so natural on the farms and ranches of North America that it is sometimes difficult to believe that they have only been here for little over a century. Most people assume that the thousands of yak across our continent today are the descendants of surplus animals sold by zoos. While this may be true in part, the complete story spans several continents and involves a colorful cast of characters, from the Prime Minister of Canada to one of the founding pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America. In my efforts to create the IYAK website’s “Timeline of the Domestic Yak” I felt compelled to share some of the more intriguing events involving yaks and their travels out of Tibet. I hope you find these vignettes as fascinating as I do. In the beginning…On page 47 of the March 2011 issue of National Geographic Magazine, a small timeline shows yaks were first domesticated about 4,500 years ago in Asia. It illustrates that, of all the livestock species worldwide, yaks were the last mammals to be domesticated. This is just one of the interesting facts presented in that National Geographic’s feature article “Taming the Wild” by Evan Ratliff. In this paper, he explores the genetic components of domestication shared by our sixteen companion species—and by the foxes recently domesticated by scientists in Siberia. Foxes? Domesticated? Yes, and a few years ago they even had their own website (defunct now) where, for the fee of $8,000, you too could join the elite ranks of pet fox owners…And what does this have to do with yaks? Not a whole lot—excuse my tangent. Anyway, according to Ratliff, many of the species humans have managed to tame over the years exhibit remarkably similar changes in behavior and appearance once domestication sets in. We see such traits as approachability, tolerance of physical contact, and the spontaneous emergence of piebald (black-and-white) coats—“Royal” coloration in the parlance of yak breeders. This strongly indicates that it wasn’t a Holstein sneaking into the zoo herd a couple hundred years ago resulting in our pinto yaks. If you need more proof, take a look at this 1945 photo of a yak at a monastery in Tibet: This photo can be found in the paper “Yaks and Yak-Cattle Hybrids in Asia”: But more about that later. For now, we need to clarify a couple of terms. If you get this next bit, you will join the ranks of the very few who understand the differences between Wild Yaks, Domestic Yaks, and feral Domestic Yaks. Why should you care? Well, it matters to those of us trying to educate the public about yaks. And it casts light on some erroneous “facts” in the history of the Domestic Yak. Information on the topic of yak domestication comes from the most reputable yak science reference we have today, namely, The Yak, 2nd edition, by Gerald Wiener, Han Jianlin and Long Riujun. This is a publication of FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, specifically their regional office for Asia and the Pacific. Print copies occasionally surface at Amazon or Alibris, but FAO has made the entire book accessible online here: http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/ad347e/ad347e00.htm Anyone serious about the scientific study of yaks needs to get familiar with this book. It provides a wealth of factual information on yak history, biology and husbandry in their homeland Tibet as well as the rest of the world. I have read it cover to cover, but every time I reread it, seems like I learn even more. More than any other source, this book has guided my research on yaks in the New World. Wild Yaks, Bos mutus, are native to the high Himalayas and Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, ranging anywhere from 12,000 to 18,000 feet above sea level. Mature males weigh as much as 2,200 lbs., while the females are no more than 800 lbs. The population is considered vulnerable, with only 15-20,000 in total. Half of these live in the Chang Tang Nature Preserve. The majority are the brown-black coloration with grey muzzles that we refer to in North America as Native Black, but approximately 200 in the region of the Aru Basin exhibit the pale brown color referred to as Golden by the Tibetans. Despite the use of the same name, it is unlikely that there is any relationship to Domestic yaks considered “Golden” in North America. Wild Yaks do not have white coats or markings. They are so intolerant of heat that they have difficulty surviving much below 10,000 feet elevation. With the exception of a couple of zoos in China and Russia, there are no Wild Yaks in zoological parks anywhere in the world. The Datong Yak Farm in Qinghai Province maintains Wild Yaks at their facility, but these were caught as calves and acclimated to the lower altitude—we’re still talking over 9,000 feet above sea level. Wild Yaks bulls at Datong are trained for AI collection as part of the farm’s mission to improve the performance of Domestic Yak. The resulting Wild Yak/Domestic Yak hybrid vigor is widely appreciated—even if the more uncertain temperament is not. The Domestic Yak, Bos grunniens, originated with the pastoral Qiang people living on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The Qiang culture domesticated sheep and goats over 10,000 years ago, then added horses, camels, and finally yak. No cattle—cattle cannot survive the elevation and the harsh environment of the plateau. There has been an unfortunate myth circulating in the United States that Domestic Yaks were developed by breeding Wild Yaks to domestic cattle. Sadly, this piece of fantasy was posted on the IYAK website for a number of years, and many of us believed it. However, cattle cannot survive at the elevations inhabited by Wild Yaks, which, in turn, never live down in the lowlands where cattle thrive. The first archeological evidence of yak—the domesticated ones—being crossed with “Chinese Yellow Cattle” occurred 2500 years ago—2000 years after yak were domesticated. How does domestication occur? This is a fascinating topic, rife with theory and speculation. We do not actually know how any of the other 15 or so livestock species went from wild to placid, and yak are no exception. One can only speculate that the Qiang were able to catch Wild Yaks—most likely as young calves—and raised them the same as they would an orphaned lamb or goat. Since these nomads were already experienced at animal husbandry, they probably developed captive breeding herds and selected, over numerous generations, for docile, tractable animals. Once the yak was domesticated, it became a valuable member of the nomadic community, providing transportation, meat, milk, wool—and trade goods for the nomads. Over the centuries, domesticated yaks acclimated to warmer temperatures and the Qiangs could bring their herds to the lower valleys where other ethnic groups raised cattle. They found that crossing yak with cattle produced useful hybrids, in the same way that breeding a horse mare to a donkey stallion results in a mule. Like a mule, the male hybrid is sterile but strong, a valued pack animal. These people roamed widely across Asia with their herds: north to Siberia, west to Afghanistan, south to India and east to the Yunnan Province of China. In many of these areas, the pastoralists continued to facilitate Wild/Domestic Yak crosses by driving their domesticated yak herds into high summer grazing fields, where the Wild Yak bulls would mate with Domestic Yak cows. Not all of the Domestic Yak cows could be located when it was time to head down to the wintering areas; those that survived went feral. Like the actual Wild Yaks, feral Domestic Yaks were likely to be solid brown-black and wary in order to evade predators. Visitors to Tibet encountering such a herd could be excused for thinking them to be truly wild—ever try to approach a herd of range cattle? And that leads me to wonder--who was the first Westerner to “discover” yaks? Until a couple of years ago, I thought it might be Samuel Turner, a British captain. In 1783, Turner was sent to Bhutan by his cousin, Warren Hastings, to congratulate the lamaist regency on the recent reincarnation of a grand lama—and to promote better trade relations with Britain, no doubt. Turner was graciously permitted an audience with the infant grand lama, who listened wisely to his compliments but made no promises. The one accomplishment Turner did manage during his visit was the acquisition of two yak bulls to be sent to Lord Hastings in England. Hastings had been the first Governor-Central of India and had an appreciation for the Far East and its culture.