onager

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Onager
Turkmenian Kulan (Equus hemionus kulan) at Korkeasaari Zoo.
Conservation status
Endangered (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	Equidae
Genus:	Equus
Subgenus:	Asinus
Species:	E. hemionus
Binomial name
Equus hemionus Pallas, 1775
Equus hemionus range

The Onager (Equus hemionus) is a large mammal belonging to the genus Equus of the family Equidae (horse family) and native to the deserts of Syria, Iran, Pakistan, India, Israel, and Tibet. It is sometimes known as the Asian Wild Ass.

Like many other large grazing animals, its range has contracted greatly under the pressures of hunting and habitat loss, and of the six subspecies, one is extinct and two endangered. The Kiang (E. kiang), a Tibetan relative, was previously considered to be a subspecies of the Onager as E. hemionus kiang, but recent molecular studies indicate that it is a distinct species.

The specific name is Ancient Greek ἡμίονος (hēmíonos), from ἡμι- (hēmi-), half, and ὄνος (ónos), donkey; thus, half-donkey or mule.

Onagers are a little larger than donkeys at about 290 kilograms (640 lb) and 2.1 metres (6.9 ft) (head-body length), and are a little more horse-like. They are short-legged compared to horses, and their coloring varies depending on the season. They are generally reddish-brown in color during the summer, becoming yellowish-brown in the winter months. They have a black stripe bordered in white that extends down the middle of the back. They are notoriously untameable. Equids were used in ancient Sumer to pull wagons circa 2600 BC, and then chariots on the Standard of Ur, circa 2000 BC. Clutton-Brock suggested that these were donkeys rather than onagers on the basis of a "shoulder stripe" (1992:88). However, close examination of the animals (equids, sheep, and cattle) on both sides of the piece indicate that what appears to be a stripe may well be harness, trapping, or a join in the inlay. For Sumerian references to onagers, see Heimpel (1968) and Maekawa (1979).

Subspecies

• Mongolian Wild Ass, Equus hemionus hemionus
• Turkmenian Kulan, Equus hemionus kulan
• Persian Onager, Equus hemionus onager
• Indian Wild Ass or Khur, Equus hemionus khur
• Syrian Wild Ass, Equus hemionus hemippus (extinct)

References

• Moehlman, Shah & Feh (2008). Equus hemionus. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2008. Retrieved on 14 Oct 2008. Database entry includes justification for why this species is Endangered
• Duncan, P. (ed.). 1992. Zebras, Asses, and Horses: an Action Plan for the Conservation of Wild Equids. IUCN/SSC Equid Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
• Moehlman, P. & Feh, C. 2002. Equus hemionus. In: IUCN 2004. 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 21 January 2006.
• Clutton-Brock, Juliet (1992). Horse Power: A History of the Horse and the Donkey in Human Societies. USA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674406469. 
• Heimpel, Wolfgang (1968). Tierbilder in der Sumerische Literatur. Studia Pohl 2. 
• Maekawa, K. 1979. The Ass and the onager in Sumer in the late third millennium B.C. Acta sumerologica, Hiroshima, I, 35-62.

External links

• Encyclopedia Britannica definition of "Ass"

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