Classroom lesson · Wildlife · 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan

Yak

The shaggy mountain cow that keeps Kyrgyz herders warm and fed

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The yak is a large, shaggy animal related to cattle, but built for life at high altitude. Yaks have long, thick coats of dark hair that hang down almost to the ground, keeping them warm in the freezing mountain winters. They have been kept by herding families across Central Asia for thousands of years and are incredibly useful animals.

Tell me more

Yaks are perfectly adapted to life in the mountains. Their lungs are much larger than ordinary cattle, which helps them breathe properly in thin mountain air. Their blood is also special — it carries oxygen more efficiently so they can trot up steep mountain paths at 4,000 metres above sea level without getting tired or out of breath.

A yak provides almost everything a herding family needs. Yak milk is richer and creamier than cow's milk and is used to make butter, cheese and a slightly fermented drink. Yak wool is extremely warm and is spun and woven into blankets, rope and clothing. The thick yak skin can be used to make bags and containers. Even dried yak dung is used as fuel for fires when there is no wood in the mountains.

Yaks are also strong enough to carry heavy loads along mountain trails, making them useful as pack animals — a bit like a mountain taxi. They are sure-footed on rocky paths and completely untroubled by the cold and snow that would stop other animals in their tracks.

Young yaks are called calves, and they are playful and curious animals. A fully grown male yak can weigh nearly a tonne. Despite their huge size and impressive curved horns, domesticated yaks are generally gentle around people they know.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

01Yaks provide milk, wool, leather, fuel and transport. Can you think of a single animal in your country that is as useful to people in as many different ways?
02Yaks can breathe and run at 4,000 metres above sea level. How do humans cope with thin air at high altitude? What adaptations might help?
03If you were a herding family in the Kyrgyz mountains, which product from the yak would you find most useful? Why?

Try this

Classroom activity

Make a 'usefulness diagram' for the yak. Draw a yak in the middle of the page. Then draw arrows pointing outward with labels showing everything a yak provides to a herding family: milk, wool, leather, dung fuel, pack animal, meat. For each one, write one sentence explaining how the family uses that product.

More about Kyrgyzstan

Other things that make Kyrgyzstan special

Want your class to meet Kyrgyzstan?

Pick Kyrgyzstanwhen you register and we’ll show you the time-zone feasibility.

Register your classroom