The Syrian wild ass, one metre high at its shoulder,[6] was the smallest equine, and it could not be domesticated.[7] Its coloring changed with the seasons — a tawny olive coat for the summer months, and pale sandy yellow for the winter.[6][8] It was known, like other onagers, to be untameable, and was compared to a thoroughbred horse for its beauty and strength.[7]
Distribution and habitat
The Syrian wild ass lived in deserts, semi-deserts, arid grasslands, and mountain steppes. Native to West Asia, they were found in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.
Ecology and behavior
Diet
The Syrian wild ass was a grazer and a browser. It fed on grass, herbs, leaves, shrubs, and tree branches.
Assyrians wrangling a wild ass, seventh century BCE
The bones of a Syrian wild ass have been identified at an 11,000 year-old archaeological site at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey.[10] Cuneiform from the third millennium BCE report the hunting of an 'equid of the desert' (anše-edin-na), valued for its meat and hide, which may have been E.h. hemippus.[11] Although Syrian wild asses were not themselves domesticated, a significant breeding center at Tell Brak produced a hybrid of the wild ass and the donkey, called the kunga, that was a draft animal of high economic and symbolic value to the elite of Syria and Mesopotamia.[11][12][13] They appear in cuneiform inscriptions and their bones are found in burials from the third millennium BCE. The size of these hybrids, larger than modern examples of both parent species, has led to speculation that the Syrian wild asses used historically in breeding the kunga were of larger size than the individuals observed in the remant populations of the 18th and 19th centuries.[11]
Assyrian art from the 7th century BCE found at Nineveh includes a scene of hunters capturing Syrian wild asses with lassos.
Xenophon of Athens mentions Syrian wild asses in his Anabasis of ~370 BCE. He reports that they were the most common of animals encountered in Syria; in addition to ostriches, bustards, and gazelles. Xenophon states that horsemen would occasionally chase the asses, with the asses easily able to outrun the horses. He said that asses would only run a short distance ahead of the horses before stopping, waiting for the horses to get closer, and then running ahead yet again. He described the asses as impossible to catch without careful planning. Xenophon also related that the meat of the asses tasted like a more tender version of venison.
It is believed this may be the "wild ass" that Ishmael was prophesied to be in Genesis in the Old Testament. References also appear in the Old Testament books of Job, Psalms, Jeremiah, and the Deuterocanonical book of Sirach.[14] The Qur’an, the main book of Islam, in Surat al-Muddaththir, refers to a scene of humur (Arabic: حُـمـر, 'asses' or 'donkeys' in plural form, حمار singular) fleeing from a qaswarah (Arabic: قَـسـورة, 'lion'). This was to criticize people who were averse to Muhammad's teachings, such as supporting the welfare of the less wealthy.[9]
Later hybrids
In addition to the Bronze Age kunga, a couple of modern hybrids were produced by the London Zoo in the late 19th century. In 1878, a Syrian wild ass was crossed with an Indian wild ass (a different subspecies), and in 1883 an inter-species cross between a Syrian wild ass male and an Abyssinian wild ass female produced a foal that was colored like the sire, and described as "a fine animal" but "vicious and untamed".[15]
Extinction
Illustration from 1869
European travelers in the Middle East during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries reported seeing large herds.[14] However, its numbers began to drop precipitously during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries due to overhunting, and its existence was further imperiled by the regional upheaval of World War I. The last known wild specimen was fatally shot in 1927 at al Ghams near the Azraq oasis in Jordan, and the last captive specimen died the same year at the Tiergarten Schönbrunn, in Vienna.[16]
Replacement
After the extinction of the Syrian wild ass, the Persian onager from Iran was chosen as an appropriate subspecies to repopulate the Middle East as a replacement for the extinct E. h. hemippus onagers. The Persian onager was then introduced to the protected areas of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. It also was reintroduced, along with the Turkmenian kulan, to Israel, where they both reproduce wild ass hybrids in the Negev Mountains and the Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve.
^Weber, Jill A. (2017). "Elite equids 2: seeing the dead". In Marjan Mashkour; Mark Beech (eds.). Archaeozoology of the Near East. Oxford: Oxbow Books. pp. 340–352.
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