| Syrian wild ass | |
|---|---|
 | |
| A Syrian wild ass inLondon Zoo, 1872 | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Perissodactyla |
| Family: | Equidae |
| Genus: | Equus |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | |
| Trinomial name | |
| †Equus hemionus hemippus I. Geoffroy, 1855 | |
| Synonyms | |
Equus hemionus syriacus | |
TheSyrian wild ass (Equus hemionus hemippus), less commonly known as ahemippe,[2] anachdari,[3][4] or aMesopotamian orSyrian onager,[5] is an extinct subspecies ofonager native to theArabian Peninsula and surrounding areas. It ranged across present-dayIraq,Palestine,Israel,Iran,Jordan,Saudi Arabia,Syria, andTurkey.
It is believed this may be the "wild ass" thatIshmael was prophesied to be inGenesis in theOld Testament. References to this wild ass also appear in the Old Testament books ofJob,Psalms,Jeremiah, and the DeuterocanonicalBook of Sirach.[6]
The Syrian wild ass, one metre high at its shoulder,[7] was the smallestequine, and it could not be domesticated.[8] Its coloring changed with the seasons—a tawny olive coat for the summer months, and pale sandy yellow for the winter.[7][9] It was known, like other onagers, to be untameable, and was compared to a thoroughbred horse for its beauty and strength.[8]
The Syrian wild ass lived in deserts, semi-deserts, arid grasslands, and mountain steppes. Native toWest Asia, they were found inIsrael,Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, andIraq.
The Syrian wild ass was agrazer and abrowser. It fed on grass, herbs, leaves, shrubs, and tree branches.
Syrian wild asses were preyed upon byAsiatic lions,[10]Arabian leopards,striped hyenas,Syrian brown bears,Arabian wolves, andCaspian tigers.Asiatic cheetahs andgolden jackals may have also preyed on foals.
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The bones of a Syrian wild ass have been identified at an 11,000 year-old archaeological site atGöbekli Tepe, Turkey.[11] 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 beenE. h. hemippus.[12] Although Syrian wild asses were not themselves domesticated, a significant breeding center atTell Brak produced a hybrid of the wild ass and the donkey, called thekunga, that was a draft animal of high economic and symbolic value to the elite of Syria and Mesopotamia.[12][13][14] 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.[12]
Assyrian art from the 7th century BCE found atNineveh includes a scene of hunters capturing Syrian wild asses withlassos.
Xenophon of Athens mentions Syrian wild asses in hisAnabasis of ~370 BCE. He reports that they were the most common of animals encountered in Syria; in addition toostriches,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" thatIshmael was prophesied to be inGenesis in theOld Testament. References to this wild ass also appear in the Old Testament books ofJob,Psalms,Jeremiah, and the DeuterocanonicalBook of Sirach.[6] TheQuran, the main book ofIslam, inSuratAl-Muddaththir, refers to a scene ofḥumur (Arabic:حُمُر, 'asses' or 'donkeys' in plural form,Arabic:حِمَار,romanized: Ḥimār singular) fleeing from aqaswarah (lion). This was to criticize people who were averse toMuhammad's teachings, such as supporting the welfare of the less wealthy.[10]
In addition to the Bronze Age kunga, a couple of modern hybrids were produced by theLondon Zoo in the late 19th century. In 1878, a Syrian wild ass was crossed with anIndian 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]
European travelers in the Middle East during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries reported seeing large herds.[6] 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 ofWorld War I. The last known wild specimen was fatally shot in 1927 at Al-Ghams near theAzraq oasis in Jordan, and the last captive specimen died the same year at theTiergarten Schönbrunn in Vienna.[16]
After the extinction of the Syrian wild ass, thePersian onager fromIran was chosen as an appropriate subspecies to repopulate the Middle East as a replacement for the extinctE. h. hemippus onagers. The Persian onager was then introduced to the protected areas of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. It also was reintroduced, along with theTurkmenian kulan, to Israel, where they both reproduce wild ass hybrids in theNegev Mountains and theYotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve.
