Yak: the breeds

The yak: a long-haired bovine of the high Himalaya and Tibet, kept for milk, meat, fibre and carrying loads.

The yak is a close relative of cattle, tamed on the Tibetan plateau several thousand years ago from the wild yak. It lives at heights where cattle struggle, usually from about three thousand to more than five thousand metres. Most of the world's domestic yaks are in China, with large herds in Mongolia, and smaller ones in Nepal, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Central Asia. In India they are kept in Ladakh, Lahaul and Spiti, Sikkim, and the Tawang and West Kameng districts of Arunachal Pradesh. Crosses of yak and cattle are called dzo.

Built for altitude

A yak has a long, shaggy outer coat that hangs almost to the ground, a dense underwool, and few sweat glands. Its large lungs and heart, and blood that carries oxygen well, suit the thin air of high altitude. Yaks cope with extreme cold and do poorly in heat. They grunt rather than low, which gives the domestic yak its scientific name, Bos grunniens, the grunting ox. The wild yak, Bos mutus, is larger and darker and survives in remote parts of Tibet.

What yaks give

For highland herders, the yak provides nearly everything: milk, butter and cheese, meat, wool and hair for tents and rope, hide, and dung for fuel where there are no trees. They carry loads over high passes and are ridden. Yak butter is used in salted butter tea and in temple lamps, and hard dried cheese, called chhurpi in the eastern Himalaya, keeps for months. Yaks are central to many Tibetan, Sherpa and Monpa festivals.

Hybrids: the dzo

Yaks and cattle can interbreed. In the Himalaya, the cross is known as dzo for the male and dzomo for the female, with many local names. Hybrid males are usually sterile, while females are fertile and give more milk than a yak. The hybrids are kept at middle altitudes, where they handle both cold and warmth better than either parent. In India, the ICAR National Research Centre on Yak at Dirang in Arunachal Pradesh studies yak breeding and herding.

Worth knowing

Domestic yak: Bos grunniens, the herd animal of the Tibetan plateau
Wild yak: Bos mutus, the larger wild form, now rare
Dzo: Yak and cattle hybrid of the Himalaya
Jiulong yak: Large yak breed of western Sichuan
Tianzhu white yak: White yak of Gansu

Good to know

Yaks need cold, high pasture; they suffer in heat and at low altitude.
Herds move between summer and winter pastures, and the herders' knowledge of those routes is part of yak keeping.

Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text by the EveryCow desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Yak on EveryCow

The breeds written up so far, best known first.

Yak