The Tibetan wild donkey (scientific name: equus kiang) is the largest of all wild donkeys, with an average shoulder height of 140 cm. The appearance is similar to that of the Mongolian wild donkey. The head is shorter, the ears are longer, and it can rotate alive. The snout is rounded and blunt, with a darker color. The body coat is mainly reddish brown, the ear tip, back ridge, mane, tail end of the coat is dark in color, above the snout, under the neck, chest, abdomen, limbs and other places are stained white, and the color line on both sides of the trunk is clear. They resemble mules, are much larger in size and hooves than domestic donkeys, and appear particularly robust and majestic, so they are often called "wild horses" in the local area.
The creature is a high prototype animal, inhabiting the area at an altitude of 3600 meters to 5400 meters, camp group life, with strong tolerance to cold, sun and wind and snow, most of them are composed of 5 or 6 small groups, large groups of 10 heads, the largest group can reach hundreds, the small group is led by a male donkey, the camp wanders to live. Good at running, high vigilance. It prefers to eat thatch, moss and artemisia, a large herbivoore.
It is mainly distributed in Yushu, Guoluo, Haibei and Haixi Prefectures in Qinghai, China, Aksai, Sunan, Nanbei and Maqu in Gansu, Arjin Mountain in Xinjiang, and in northern Tibet and western Sichuan.
The Tibetan wild donkey can reach more than 2 meters in length, with a head length of 182-214 cm, a tail length of 32-45 cm, a shoulder height of 132-142 cm, and a weight of 250-400 kg. Males are larger. The limbs are thicker and more robust than the little donkeys raised at home. And the forelimbs have round callosums on the inside, commonly known as "night eyes", and the hooves are narrow and high, which can be said to be "high-headed donkeys". Therefore, local people often call them "wild horses".
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The head is short and wide, the snout is slightly rounded and blunt, the ear shell is more than 170 mm long, the mane is short and straight, the tail mane is born in the posterior half of the tail or 1/3 from the end of the tail, the limbs are thick, and there are round callosums on the inside of the forelimbs, commonly known as the "night eye", and the hooves are narrow and high. The snout is milky white, the dorsal part is brown or dark brown (summer hair is slightly black), the flank coat is darker to dark brown, from the posterior end of the neck hyena from the shoulder along the dorsal ridge to the tail, with a distinctly narrower tan or black brown ridge, commonly known as "dorsal velvet", there is a distinct brown stripe on the outside of the shoulder blade, the mask on the back of the shoulder is typical of white wedge-shaped spots, the anterior ventral angle of this spot is curved, the abdomen and the inside of the limbs are white, the pale area of the abdomen is obviously extended to the side of the body, and the outside of the limbs is light brown, The white of the arm blends with the surrounding body hue without a clear boundary. Adult summer hairs are deeper.
The Tibetan wild donkey is a large herbivore on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with a similar body shape to the Mongolian wild donkey and mule, with deep ear tips, dorsal ridgelines, mane and tail tips, and milky white above the snout, under the neck, chest, abdomen, limbs, etc., and the color lines on both sides of the trunk are clear. In general, the summer hair is darker, the winter hair is lighter, the juvenile coat color is darker, sandy yellow, the villi are very long, and the coat color is like an adult after the second summer hair change.
Habitat
The Tibetan wild donkey lives in the alpine desert area, living in the mountains at an altitude of more than 5,000 meters in the summer and at a lower altitude in the winter. Good cluster life, good at running, high vigilance. Prefers to eat thatch, moss and artemisia. In the arid environment, you will find a suitable place to dig out water with hoof planing pits to drink, and you can also provide water for ungulates such as Tibetan antelopes.
Habits of life
Tibetan wild donkeys have a habit of moving in groups, and females, males and young donkeys live wandering together all year round. 5-8 heads or 20-30 heads per group. In the summer, where the water and grass conditions are good and there is little human interference, the Tibetan wild donkey group will be very large. The Tibetan wild donkey herds that live on the edge of Lake Ishakpati in Xinjiang's Arjin Mountain Nature Reserve often number between more than 100 and more than 200 individuals. In the Area of the Halten Basin at the northern edge of the Qaidam Basin, small groups of 3-5 heads usually move, and individual wild donkeys that move alone are also common.
Tibetan wild donkeys are extremely drought tolerant and can go days without drinking water. Their sense of hearing, smell, and vision are very sensitive, and they can detect situations hundreds of meters away from them. If you notice someone approaching or attacking, first quietly look up, stare for a moment, and then sprint with your hooves raised. After running a certain distance, I felt safe, stopped standing and watching, and then ran again. Always run, stop, look and run. Good cluster life, good at running, high vigilance. Prefers to eat thatch, moss and artemisia.
Tibetan wild donkeys also have a very special habit of racing with cars. When the car pulls into a place where Tibetan wild donkeys are active, the wild donkeys in the distance will watch curiously at the cars that are gradually approaching them. When the car got closer to them, the wild donkey ran forward and tried to stay parallel to the car. Sometimes the driver also deliberately competes with the wild donkey, driving the car to a speed of 60 kilometers per hour and racing with the wild donkey. Wild donkeys race against cars, and finally they always have to run to the front of the car, and they have to pass in front of the car before they stop. After the wild donkey crosses the car, it often continues to run for a while, and then stops and watches. Sometimes wild donkeys pay for their lives for this strange behavior, and some poachers chase wild donkeys in cars. There were once cars and 4 wild donkeys running side by side on the desert at an altitude of 4,000 meters for more than ten kilometers, and the speed of wild donkeys did not slow down at all. Although Tibetan wild donkeys have excellent endurance and can run 40-50 kilometers in one breath without rest, chasing wild animals for a long time with a car may cause them adverse consequences. In the end, people take the initiative to slow down and let the wild donkey run to the front of the car.
Tibetan wild donkeys have the habit of migrating short distances with the seasons. Usually, the activities are very regular, drinking water at the water source in the early morning, collecting food and resting in the grassland during the day, and returning to the deep mountains in the evening for the night. You have to wander tens of kilometers every day. In places where wild donkeys often move, unsupervised Tibetan wild donkeys like to line up in columns when moving, and the fish run through them. In the pasture and near the water source, it is often walked along a fixed route, leaving a unique "donkey path" on the grass. The donkey path is about 20 cm wide and stretches out in all directions.
When there is a drought and lack of water, the clever Tibetan wild donkey will choose a place with a high groundwater table in the bend to "dig a well". They use their hooves to plan large puddles about half a meter deep on the beach, which local herders call "donkey wells". In addition to drinking themselves, these puddles also provide water for animals such as Tibetan antelope, Tibetan hartebeest, and goose-throated antelope.
Distribution range
The Tibetan wild donkey, native to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is found in western China, Nepal, Pakistan and northern India. [1]
The Tibetan wild donkey is mainly distributed in Yushu, Guoluo, Haibei and Haixi prefectures in Qinghai, Aksai, Sunan, Nanbei and Maqu in Gansu, Arjin Mountain in Xinjiang, the western part of the Nagqu region of Tibet, the northwest of the Ali region and the Xigaze region, sichuan.
Breeding methods
Tibetan wild donkeys are the breeding season from July to December every year, and the females give birth to 1 litter per litter, and the cubs can weigh up to 35 kg at birth, and are sexually mature at 3-4 years old. Wild Tibetan wild donkeys live about 20 years.
Every year from August to September, the Tibetan wild donkey enters the breeding and mating period, at which time, the male donkey becomes very fierce and frequently hisses. They often have fierce bites for mating rights. The victorious male wild donkey controls the movement of the entire donkey herd, and if the donkey disobeys, he kicks and bites at it. Tibetan wild donkeys take good care of their young, and once saw a group of wild donkeys crossing the river, a small donkey could not climb the riverbank, two large wild donkeys put it in the middle, with the shoulder to push the small wild donkey ashore interesting behavior
Population status
Wild donkeys' main predators include wolves, snow leopards, and lynx. Thanks to proper conservation measures, the population of wild donkeys has increased year by year, with nearly 60,000 in Changtang alone. According to the estimates of Liu Wulin and others, the number of wild donkeys in Tibet was about 56,000 in 1989, and the total in 1998 was close to 80,000. In addition, according to WWF survey statistics, there are large groups of wild donkeys in the northern part of Qabu Township in Ali Gaize County and in the northwestern part of Nyima County, some groups reaching more than 500. Therefore, we have reason to believe that the number of wild donkeys in Tibet far exceeds this number and reaches 100,000.
In the past, Tibetan wild donkeys lived in the remote, remote, sparsely populated Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region, which was naturally protected. However, in recent years, due to the extreme lack of food caused by human overgrazing, or due to the interference of human gold panning and other activities, illegal poaching has also occurred from time to time, and the population of wild donkeys in Tibet has been declining. In order to protect this species, the Chinese government has listed the Tibetan wild donkey as a first-class key protected animal and strictly prohibits its killing.
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