Animal profile

Wild yak

Bos mutus

MammaliaAlpine tundra, cold desert steppe and high plateau, mostly between 4,000 and 6,000 metresVulnerable

Field profile

The wild yak is a massive high-altitude bovid with a dense double coat, a long skirt of hair and broad sweeping horns. It grazes sparse alpine vegetation on the Tibetan Plateau and is the ancestor of the domestic yak.

Published field notes

2026-05-01

Wild yak

Wild yaks are several times heavier than domestic ones

The yaks familiar from Himalayan photographs are the domestic form, which is a fraction of the size of the wild animal. A wild bull can stand about two metres at the shoulder and outweigh a domestic yak several times over.

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