EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Khainag:  But Nadim or Yaddik?

Domestic Yak (Bos grunniens) - Cattle (Bos taurus) Hybrid
Khovsgol Lake, Mongolia

Explanation:  This shaggiest of cattle is not a true cattle.  It is a hybrid of a cattle and a yak.  

We are at beautiful Khovsgol Lake in northern Mongolia, in taiga forests of Siberian larch, not far from the border with southern Russia.  Here, and elsewhere in Mongolia, herders breed and graze cattle and these yak-cattle hybrids known in Mongolian as khainags.  

But khainags can arise two ways.  

If it is a result of a yak bull and a cattle female, it is called a nadim.
If it is a result of a yak cow and a cattle bull, it is called a yaddik.  

To be honest, I didn't have the courage to peek through its skirt of wooly hair to check if this offspring itself is male or female.  But males typically have longer hair that can reach the ground.  Both sexes can sport horns, with the male's being longer, but this specimen had none, or perhaps had them removed for safety reasons. 

Anyhow, while exploring a peninsula jutting out into the lake, I suddenly found myself surrounded by this quiescently grazing herd of ... khainags ... whichever they may be.  

Yak, cattle, yak-cattle hybrids, and beautiful Khovsgol Lake
of northern Mongolia.
  

Khovsgol Lake is the smaller twin of Russia's Lake Baikal,
found to the northeast from here just over the Russia border.

  

Our ger (yurt) camp,
where we enjoyed meals of khainag meat.