All About Yaks

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    Chapter four

    Yak Fun Facts

    Short, true, and proven useful at parties — especially parties in Lhasa.

    The list

    1. The yak is named after its voice. Linnaeus called the domestic yak Bos grunniens — "the grunting ox" — because yaks are among the only cattle that grunt constantly, especially on the move. The wild form's name, Bos mutus, means "the mute one."

    2. In Tibetan, "yak" means only the male. The full story is in What's in a name? — the milk-bearing female is a nak.

    3. Yak milk is often pink. Not from strawberries: the milk is so rich in butterfat that it carries a faint pink blush, and it churns into the butter behind butter tea and butter sculpture.

    4. A wild yak bull is the largest bovine on Earth. Over 900 kilograms, with the biggest bulls possibly topping a tonne — the record-setting numbers sit in the comparison table.

    5. They are the only cattle that live at "aircraft" altitudes. Wild yaks regularly range above 5,000 meters, and climbers on Everest have met them above base camp — see how high is high.

    6. Yaks swim in frozen lakes. Reported by herders, enjoyed, it seems, by the yaks: the habitat page has the details.

    7. The plateau runs on yak dung. Above the tree line there is no firewood, so the dried dung of the herd is the fuel — it has boiled the tea and heated the homes for roughly four thousand years.

    8. Yak-cattle hybrids have a name and a flaw. The dzo is bigger and gives more milk, but the males are sterile — the whole story is in When yaks and cattle marry.

    Prove-it details

    Some of these sound made up, so each of the following expands to the receipts.

    Really, pink milk?

    Really — or at least, that is how drinkers describe it. Yak milk runs five to seven percent butterfat, roughly double typical cow's milk, and the fat carries a warm, faintly pink tint. churned into butter, it is staple, cosmetic, lamp fuel, and art medium all at once.

    A grunting ox — how noisy are we talking?

    Noisy enough that a yak caravan announces itself long before you see it. Herders read the grunts like engine noise: contentment, complaint, or a cow calling a calf. Meanwhile the wild yak — mutus, remember — is notoriously silent, which makes meeting one above 5,000 meters even more of a surprise.

    That is the tour. Head back to the top of the site and pick another trail.