Numerous species of birds, such as black-necked cranes, inhabit Tibetan grasslands. Black-necked cranes nest in marshes in the grasslands of the northern and central Tibetan Plateau in the summer and, in the winter, migrate to the Lhasa Valley, a few sites in Yunnan and Guizhou Provinces, and to Bhutan. Wild yak bull in the Chang Tang Wildlife Reserve, Tibet. Wild yaks once numbered in the millions and roamed throughout the Tibetan Plateau. Now, only an estimated 14,000 are left and these remaining wild yaks can only be found in the most remote areas, far from the hunter s guns.
Wild yaks are probably the wildlife species under the most threat on the Tibetan Plateau today.
Preserving the last herds of wild yaks is crucial for conserving biodiversity in the rangelands. Without the wild yak, the rangelands of Tibet will have lost one of its characteristic species. The wild yak is the progenitor of all yak populations. There is little doubt that the presence of wild yaks, and their later domestication, was the singlemost important factor in the adaptation of civilisation on the Tibetan Plateau.