AnimalsThe yak is a long-haired ox of the high mountains. Its thick coat and large lungs let it live where the air is thin and cold. People of Ladakh, Tibet and Nepal depend on yaks for milk, wool, meat and carrying loads.
Quick facts
- Scientific name
- Bos grunniens
- Group
- Mammals
- Diet
- Herbivore (eats plants)
- Lives in
- The Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau
- Habitat
- High, cold grassland
- A young one is called
- calf
- A group is called
- herd
- Conservation status
- No category in our data
How it is classified
Scientists sort living things into groups within groups. Reading down, each step is a smaller group, ending with the species itself.
- Kingdom Animalia
- Phylum Chordata
- Class Mammalia
- Order Artiodactyla
- Family Bovidae
- Genus Bos
- Species Bos grunniens
Other members of the family Bovidae on this site: blackbuck, cow, gaur, goat, nilgai, sheep, water buffalo.
More distant relatives in the order Artiodactyla: Bactrian camel, chital, dromedary camel, giraffe, hippopotamus, moose, pig, reindeer, sambar, wild boar.
Classification follows the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Other reference works arrange some groups differently. How classification works.
Is it in danger?
No Red List category for the yak was found in our data source. What the categories mean.