Blackish-brown with enormously long hair almost reaching the ground, and continuing down the tail giving it a bushy appearance. A thick and woolly undercoat lies under the long hair. Heavily built with drooping head, high humped shoulders, straight back and short sturdy limbs. The large black horns curve upward and forward in males, and may measure 40 inches from tip to tip. Domestic yaks are smaller and are colored red, mottled, brown or black.
Yaks live in the high bleak plateaus and mountains of central Asia.
Their range is from the lower valleys to 20,000 foot levels. In the winter the wild yak moves from the snow-covered slopes to the valleys. These animals do not thrive in the lower and warmer parts of Asia. Coarse grasses, herbs, and lichens. Bulls wander alone or in small groups but females and calves herd together for protection.