History and distribution

The Yak was domesticated approximately 3,000 years ago by the Tibetans to be used for the transport of goods, but also in order to exploit the fibre, meat, skin, milk and other derivatives. It has always colonised particularly inhospitable Alpine environments characterised by tundra and rocks.

Cloaked in layers of long shaggy hair, and protected by a soft down, the yaks live at high altitudes in groups of between 10 and 30 individuals, more rarely in groups of up to 200, in the most remote areas of the Himalayan plateau in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Ladakh, China and Western Mongolia.

In the summer, on account of its dense coat, the animal prefers the higher reaches on the borders of the vegetation, at around 5,400 metres, where even during the summer months there is perennial snow, while before winter arrives it descends to lower altitudes of about 3,200 metres.

The yaks, which were once numerous and widespread throughout central Asia, in particular throughout the Tibetan plateau to the north of the Himalayan mountain range, are now reduced in numbers to about half what they were at the start of the last century. Nevertheless, recent studies and researches carried out on the Tibetan plateau have demonstrated that in the last ten years the population of yak has revealed a reverse trend, and that they are now on the increase.

Of the 14 million domesticated yaks that exist in the world, five million live on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau.

Approximately 8 million yaks live in China, representing approximately 55% of the world total, making the People’s Republic of China the world leader in yak breeding, along with Tibet which numbers 5 million. 

There are just a few hundred wild yaks in the world, and in 2000 the yak was classified by the IUCN as a species threatened with extinction. The wild yak has also been an officially protected species in China since 1962, and in India (Ladakh) since 1972.