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 Yak
Since yaks cannot survive below 3,500 meters (10,500 feet), they are found at higher
altitudes, usually above 4,500 meters (12,500 feet) and sometimes, as high as 6,100 meters
(18,300 feet). Unique hemoglobin in the yak's blood may have assisted the creature in
adapting to high altitudes. Yaks are rather large creatures, standing nearly 6 feet tall
at the shoulder, with male adults weighing over a ton. Females of the species tend to
weigh about a third of that. An endangered species, yaks are not helped by the fact that
they bear only one young after a nine month gestation period, and that baby yaks need a
full year to ween before they can survive on their own. Domesticated in Tibet in the first
millennium B.C., yaks are kept in herds by nomadic Bhutanese herdsmen.
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