Yaks at the Top of the World

One time, people at the workplace were getting a mite talkative. I said, "Sounds like a herd of Tibetan pack animals". After they gave me a blank stare, I said, "Yak yak yak!" Yeah, I know, supposed to be spelled "yack", but I just had to make a play on words. But have you ever considered the big, shaggy beast?

Image credit: Pixabay / Simon

When you look at the picture, you can see that they are related to cattle. They are used in the same way: milk, cheese (hard to find around these parts), hides, food, pack animals, and so on, so they're important for the survival of the humans up there. In fact, yaks can interbreed with the more common kinds. But don't be looking for cowboys bringing them to Texas for beef and saddling up because they don't do well in lower temperatures. Not only did God give them the ability to adapt to the thin air, but also the cold temperatures that they prefer. There are some fascinating inner mechanisms that they've been equipped with, including specialized hemoglobin. Evolutionists cannot give a plausible mechanism for their existence.

The Tibetan plateau is the roof of the world. Rising three miles into the sky, the air is intolerably thin, water is scarce, and temperatures regularly plummet to –40°F. No trees peep above the rocky, windswept landscape. Even hardy shrubs struggle to survive.

Yet there they are, lots of them—massive hairy yaks munching away on meager scraps of grass and herbs, seemingly oblivious to their impossible situation. Wild males can be over 10 feet (3.25 m) long and tower over 6.5 feet (2 m) at the shoulders; their average weight is around 1 ton (1,000 kg).

With its dense, woolly undercoat and shaggy outer hair coat, the “grunting ox” (Bos grunniens) is well prepared to endure the raging cold that is characteristic of this remote region of Asia. Yaks can easily withstand temperatures of –40 degrees, that numbing condition where the Fahrenheit and Celsius readings are the same... if the thermometer goes that low. They have been seen bathing in lakes and rivers, regardless of the temperature.

To read the rest, click on "Yaks — Living the High Life".