The Indian wild ass (''Equus hemionus khur''), also called the Indian onager or, in the local Gujarati language, Ghudkhur and Khur, is a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...

of the

onager The onager (; ''Equus hemionus'' ), A new species called 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 it to be a distinct ...

native to

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;; ...

. It is currently listed as

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

. The previous census in 2009 estimated a population of 4,038 Indian wild asses. However, the population was still growing. In December 2014, the population was estimated at 4,451 individuals. As of 2015, the current Indian wild ass population has increased to around 4800 individuals in and outside of the

Wild Ass Wildlife Sanctuary Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary also known as the Wild Ass Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the Little Rann of Kutch in the Gujarat state of India. It is spread over an area of 4954 km². The wildlife sanctuary was established in 1972 and came ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. The population has risen by 37% since 2014, reveals data released by the Gujarat forest department. The population has reached 6,082, according to the census conducted in March 2020.

Physical description

The Indian wild ass, as with most other Asian wild ass subspecies, is quite different from the African wild ass species. The coat is usually sandy, but varies from reddish grey, fawn, to pale chestnut. The animal possesses an erect, dark mane which runs from the back of the head and along the neck. The mane is then followed by a dark brown stripe running along the back, to the root of the tail.

Range and habitat

The Indian wild ass's range once extended from western

, southern

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, i.e. provinces of

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

and

Baluchistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western Asia, Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian S ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

, and south-eastern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Today, its last refuge lies in the

Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary also known as the Wild Ass Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the Little Rann of Kutch in the Gujarat state of India. It is spread over an area of 4954 km². The wildlife sanctuary was established in 1972 and came u ...

Little Rann of Kutch The Little Rann of Kutch is a salt marsh which is part of the Rann of Kutch in Kutch district, Gujarat, India. Attractions Indian wild ass sanctuary The Little Rann of Kutch is home to the Indian wild ass (khur). To conserve this spec ...

and its surrounding areas of the

Great Rann of Kutch The Great Rann of Kutch (or Rann of Kutch seasonal salt marsh) is a salt marsh in the Thar Desert in the Kutch District of Gujarat, India. It is about 7500 km2 (2900 sq miles) in area and is reputed to be one of the largest salt de ...

in the

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

state of India. The animal, however, is also seen in the districts of

Surendranagar Surendranagar Dudhrej is a municipality in Surendranagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Dudhrej municipality is directly connected with Wadhwan city and Wadhwan municipality. Etymology Dudhrej was originally a nes (hamlet) settled ...

Banaskantha Banaskantha district is one of the thirty-three districts of the Gujarat state of India. The administrative headquarters of the district is at Palanpur which is also its largest city. The district is located in the Northeast of Gujarat and is pre ...

Mehsana Mehsana (), also spelled Mahesana, is a city and municipality in Mehsana district, in the Indian state of Gujarat. Established in 14th century, the city was under Gaekwads of Baroda State from 18th century to the independence of India in 1947 ...

, and other Kutch districts. Saline deserts (''rann''), arid grasslands and shrublands are its preferred environments.

Range extension in recent years

The Indian wild ass population has been increasing in numbers and extending its range from Little Rann of Kutch, where the world's last population of this subspecies had got confined to in recent years, and has gradually started moving out and colonizing the

Greater Rann of Kutch The Great Rann of Kutch (or Rann of Kutch seasonal salt marsh) is a salt marsh in the Thar Desert in the Kutch District of Gujarat, India. It is about 7500 km2 (2900 sq miles) in area and is reputed to be one of the largest salt de ...

, also extending into the neighboring Indian State of Rajasthan in the bordering villages in

Jalore district Jalore District is a district of Rajasthan state in western India. The city of Jalore is the administrative headquarters of the district. The district has an area of (3.11 percent of Rajasthan's area), and a population of 1,828,730 (2011 cen ...

bordering the Rann of Kutch of Gujarat and Khejariali and its neighbourhood where a 60 km² area was transferred to the Rajasthan Forest Department by the revenue authorities in 2007. At this place

Rebari The Rabari people (also known as Desai, Rabari, Raika, and Dewasi people) are an ethnic group from the Rajasthan also found in Gujarat Kutch region. Origin Myth The Rabari myth of origin is kshatriya that Shiva put them on earth to tend to the c ...

s (camel and sheep breeders) live in the

Prosopis juliflora ''Prosopis juliflora'' ( es, bayahonda blanca, Cuji Venezuela, Trupillo Colombia, Aippia Wayuunaiki and long-thorn kiawe in Hawaii) is a shrub or small tree in the family Fabaceae, a kind of mesquite. It is native to Mexico, South America and th ...

jungles in the company of

chinkara The chinkara (''Gazella bennettii''), also known as the Indian gazelle, is a gazelle species native to Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Taxonomy The following six subspecies are considered valid: * Deccan chinkara (''G. b. bennettii ...

s, striped hyenas,

red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the Order (biology), order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe ...

es, desert cats and Indian wolves."Wild Ass Sighted in Rajasthan Villages Along Gujarat"
by Sunny Sebastian; September 13, 2009; ''The Hindu: India's National Newspaper''

Biology and behaviour

Indian wild asses graze between dawn and dusk. The animal feeds on grass, leaves and fruits of plant, crop, ''

Prosopis ''Prosopis'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It contains around 45 species of spiny trees and shrubs found in subtropical and tropical regions of the Americas, Africa, Western Asia, and South Asia. They often thrive in ari ...

'' pods, and saline vegetation. It is one of the fastest of Indian animals, with speeds clocked at about 70 – 80 km. per hour and can easily outrun a jeep. Stallions live either solitarily, or in small groups of twos and threes while family herds remain large. Mating season is in rainy season. When a mare comes into heat, she separates from the herd with a stallion who battles against rivals for her possession. After few days, the pair returns to the herd. The mare gives birth to one foal. The male foal weans away by 1–2 years of age, while the female continues to stay with the family herd.

Threats

It is unknown how the Indian wild ass disappeared from its former haunts in parts of western India and

, since the animal was never a hunting target of Indian

Maharajas Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...

and colonial British officials of the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

. However, India's

Mughal Emperors The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled ...

and noblemen from the time took great pleasure in hunting it with Emperor Jahangir in his book ''

Tuzk-e-Jahangiri ''Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri'' or ''Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri'' ( fa, ) or Jahangir-nama ( fa, ) is the autobiography of Mughal Emperor Jahangir (1569–1627). Also referred to as ''Jahangirnama'', the ''Tuzk-e-Jahangiri'' is written in Persian, and follows th ...

''. In an illustrated copy that has survived of ''

Akbarnama The ''Akbarnama'', which translates to ''Book of Akbar'', the official chronicle of the reign of Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor (), commissioned by Akbar himself and written by his court historian and biographer, Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak. It was w ...

'', the book of Mughal Emperor

Akbar the Great Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

there is an illustration of Akbar on an Indian wild ass shoot with several of them having been shot by him.Mughal Emperor Akbar lost in the desert while hunting wild asses: This illustration from the Akbarnama depicts the emperor Akbar falling into a mystical trance while on a desert hunt in 1571.
The Akbarnama was commissioned by the emperor Akbar as the official chronicle of his reign. It was written by his court historian and biographer Abu'l Fazl between 1590 and 1596 and is thought to have been illustrated between about 1592 and 1594 by at least 49 different artists from Akbar's studio. Housed at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, U. K.; Enlarged Image of the Painting from Victoria and Albert Museum website
VAM.ac.uk
/ref> From 1958-1960, the wild ass became a victim of a disease known as ''

surra Surra (from the Marathi ''sūra'', meaning the sound of heavy breathing through nostrils, of imitative origin) is a disease of vertebrate animals. The disease is caused by protozoan trypanosomes, specifically ''Trypanosoma evansi'', of severa ...

'', caused by ''

Trypanosoma evansi ''Trypanosoma evansi'' is a parasitic species of excavate trypanosome in the genus ''Trypanosoma'' that causes one form of surra in animals. Discovered by Griffith Evans in 1880 at Dera Ismail Khan (British India), it is the first known trypa ...

'' and transmitted by flies, which caused a dramatic decline of its population in India. In November and December 1961, the wild ass population was reduced to just 870 after the outbreak of South African Horse Sickness. Besides disease, the ass's other threats include habitat degradation due to salt activities, the invasion of the ''

'' shrub, and encroachment and grazing by the

Maldhari Maldharis are herdsmen community in Gujarat, India. Originally nomads, they came to be known as Maldharis after settling in Junagadh district (mainly Gir Forest). "Maldhari" is an occupational term which refers to people from a variety of castes ...

. Conservation efforts since 1969 have helped boost the animal's population to more than 4000 individuals.

Conservation

In the last century, the Indian wild ass lived all over the dry regions of northwestern India and western Pakistan including Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Sind and Baluchistan. Today, it survives only in the Little Rann, and a few stray towards the Great Rann of Kutch with some reaching bordering villages in the

of the Indian State of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern ...

. First census of the wild ass was done in 1940, when there were an estimated 3,500 wild asses. But, by the year 1960, this figure fell to just 362, it was then classified as a highly endangered species. In the years 1973 & 1976, Rann of Kutch and adjoining districts were taken up as the area for conservation for this sub-species also known as Khur. From 1976, the forest department began conducting the wild ass census. Water holes were increased in the area, the forest department has also started a project for having fodder plots though the forest department is yet to get desired success. In 1998, the wild ass population was estimated at 2,940, by the year 2004 it has increased to an estimated 3,863. A recent census conducted by forest department in 2009 has revealed that the population of wild ass in the state was estimated to about 4,038, an increase of 4.53% as compared to 2004. Recently in 2015, the current census of the Indian wild ass population has increased to more than 4,800 individuals in and outside of the

. Of late, it has been spotted right outside

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per ...

near

Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary, consisting primarily of a lake and ambient marshes, is situated about 64 km to the west of Ahmedabad near Sanand Village, in the Gujarat state of India. Mainly inhabited by migratory birds in winter and spri ...

. It seems it is no more confined to the 4,953.71 km² area of the Rann, but it is now being found right up to the Kala Dungar near

Banni grasslands Banni Grasslands Reserve or Banni grasslands form a belt of arid grassland ecosystem on the outer southern edge of the desert of the marshy salt flats of Rann of Kutch in Kutch District, Gujarat State, India. They are known for rich wildlife ...

in Kutch and Nal Sarovar. Within the State of Gujarat it is now also found in districts of Surendranagar, Rajkot, Patan, Banaskantha and Kutch. This population of wild asses is the only gene pool of Indian wild asses in the entire world and one of the six geographical varieties or sub-species surviving on the planet.Wild asses population rises by 4% (2009)
TNN; 11 April 2009; Times of India by Dionne Bunsha; Volume 23 - Issue 8: Apr 22 - May 05, 2006; Frontline Magazine; India's National Magazine from the publishers of ''The Hindu''

Reintroduction plans

The population has been growing since 1976 but the wild ass experts warn, long-term trends show intense fluctuations. This area in Kutch, Gujarat is drought-prone due to erratic

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

s,A desert weeps - In the Kutch, the locals are in uneasy co-existence with their natural resources, writes Pamela Bhagat
June 6, 2004; The Hindu, India's National Newspaper the wild ass population could decline suddenly as a result of a massive die-off. It is only if there are no severe droughts, the species is likely to grow and disperse in the Great Rann and adjoining Rajasthan, habitats that the wild ass occupied in the recent past. The Gujarat Ecological Education and Research Foundation (GEER) report has recommended that the

Thar desert The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Subcontinent that covers an area of and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. It is the world's 20th-largest desert, ...

in Rajasthan should be developed as an alternative site for re-establishing the Indian wild ass by

reintroduction Species reintroduction is the deliberate release of a species into the wild, from captivity or other areas where the organism is capable of survival. The goal of species reintroduction is to establish a healthy, genetically diverse, self-sustainin ...

a few of them there.

Related subspecies

Mongolian wild ass The Mongolian wild ass (''Equus hemionus hemionus''), also known as Mongolian khulan, is the nominate subspecies of the onager. It is found in southern Mongolia and northern China. It was previously found in eastern Kazakhstan and southern Siberi ...

(''khulan''), ''Equus hemionus hemionus'' *

Turkmenian kulan The Turkmenian kulan (''Equus hemionus kulan''), also called Transcaspian wild ass, Turkmenistani onager or simply the ', is a subspecies of onager (Asiatic wild ass) native to Central Asia. It was declared Endangered in 2016. The species's p ...

, ''Equus hemionus kulan'' *

Persian onager The Persian onager (''Equus hemionus onager''), also called the Persian wild ass or Persian zebra, is a subspecies of onager (Asiatic wild ass) native to Iran (Persia). It is listed as Endangered, with no more than 600 individuals left in the wil ...

, ''Equus hemionus onager'' *

Syrian wild ass The Syrian wild ass (''Equus hemionus hemippus''), less commonly known as a hemippe, an achdari, or a Mesopotamian or Syrian onager, is an extinct subspecies of onager native to the Arabian peninsula and surrounding areas. It ranged across present ...

or hemippe, ''Equus hemionus hemippus'' (

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

)

References

External links

Wildlife Times: Indian Wild Ass - Equus hemionus khur

Trip Record: Photos of Friends on a motorbike trip through Kutch visiting the Great Rann of Kutch passing through Kala Dungar (Black hill), snow white Rann, then they visit the Dholavira Harappan excavation site. Then biking through Banni grasslands they see Indian Wild Ass there and Chari-Dhand Wetland Conservation Reserve. They then Bike to Lakhpat fort village and also Mandvi beach.
Also se
Superbikerdg.com
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6022926 Onager Extinct animals of Pakistan Fauna of South Asia Fauna of the Thar Desert Mammals described in 1827 Taxa named by René Lesson Mammals of India Mammals of Pakistan