Oxen are generally dark brownish or blackish in color. The extinct aurochs originally ranged throughout Europe, southern Asia, and northern Africa. The yak inhabits steppe grasslands and high mountain pastures in Central Asia. The gaur, banteng, and kouprey are at home in the tropics of southern Asia.
Oxen are grazers, feeding primarily on grasses.
They are social animals, usually found in small herds, though males are occasionally solitary. Males are called bulls, females cows, the young calves. The aurochs was the ancestor of domestic cattle, which are raised primarily for meat and milk. Zebus are the sacred cattle of India and are sometimes given their own scientific name, Bos indicus . All surviving oxen but the kouprey have also been domesticated as sources of labor and meat.