Onager
Equus hemionus Pallas, 1775
The onager (Equus hemionus), also called the khur or kulan, is a mammal of the family Equidae in the order Perissodactyla. It is a large, terrestrial herbivore with a cathemeral activity pattern and an adult body mass of 240 kg.
.jpg){kind=link}
Quick facts about the onager
Females have 1 young per litter after a gestation period of 346 days, and the age at sexual maturity is 3.2 years. The IUCN Red List classifies the onager as Near Threatened, which is not a threatened category.
- Weight
- 230 kg – 240 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- 2.1 msrc for Length
- Lifespan
- 28.9 years – 38.8 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Herbivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- desert, grasslandsrc for Habitat
- Gestation
- 346 days – 365 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 3.17 years – 3.25 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 0.7src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- Day and night (cathemeral)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Near Threatened (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the onager?
Photos of the onager
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
Where does the onager live?
Not recorded
What is the onager?
The onager (, ) (Equus hemionus), also known as hemione or Asiatic wild ass, is a species of the family Equidae native to Asia. A member of the subgenus Asinus, the onager was described and given its binomial name by German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1775. Six subspecies are accepted.
The onager is reddish-brown or yellowish-brown and has a broad dorsal stripe on the middle of the back. It weighs about 200–260 kg (440–570 lb) and reaches about 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) head-body length. It is among the fastest mammals, capable of running 64–70 km/h (40–43 mph).
The onager had a wider range from southwest and central to northern Asia including the Levant region, Arabian Peninsula, Afghanistan and Siberia; the prehistoric European wild ass subspecies ranged through Europe until the Bronze Age. During the early 20th century, it lost most of its range in the Middle East and Eastern Asia and lives today in Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, India, Mongolia and China. It inhabits deserts and arid regions, grasslands, plains, steppes, and savannahs. Like many other large grazing animals, its range has contracted greatly under the pressures of poaching and habitat loss. It has been classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List in 2015. Two subspecies are extinct, two are endangered, and two are near threatened; its status in China is not well known.
From the Wikipedia article “Onager” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Onager&oldid=1384547874), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the onager endangered?
The onager is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List: it is close to qualifying as threatened.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Near Threatened species.
How is the onager classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderPerissodactyla
- familyEquidae
- genusEquus
- SpeciesEquus hemionus Pallas, 1775
Synonyms Equus bahram, Equus bedfordi, Equus castaneus, Equus dzigguetai, Equus finschi, Equus hamar, Equus hemionos, Equus indicus, Equus indicus, Equus onager, Equus syriacus, Equus typicus
Other names and names in other languages (85)
- Asian wild assEnglish
- Asian wild assEnglish
- Asian zebraEnglish
- Asiatic wild assEnglish
- Asiatic wild assEnglish
- Asiatic wild assEnglish
- Eurasian wild assEnglish
- Eurasiatic wild assEnglish
- Gobi KulanEnglish
- Gobi KulanEnglish
- HemioneEnglish
- KhurEnglish
- KulanEnglish
- KulanEnglish
- Mongolian KulanEnglish
- Mongolian KulanEnglish
- Persian onagerEnglish
- Persian onagerEnglish
- Syrian onagerEnglish
- Syrian onagerEnglish
- Asiatiese EselAfrikaans
- Asiatiese WildeselAfrikaans
- Asiatiese-WildeselAfrikaans
- أخدرArabic
- hemiónAsturian
- КулянBelarusian
- Азіяцкі АсёлBelarusian
- osel asijskýCzech
- HalbeselGerman
- Asiatischer EselGerman
- Asiatischer HalbeselGerman
- Asiatischer WildeselGerman
- Άγριος ΓάιδαροςGreek
- OnagroSpanish
- Asno Salvaje AsiáticoSpanish
- HemionoSpanish
- EeslikEstonian
- GoorPersian
- گورخر آسیاییPersian
- Goor-e-khar-e-asiaeePersian
- kulaaniFinnish
- AasianvilliaasiFinnish
- onageriFinnish
- OnagreFrench
- Ane sauvage d'AsieFrench
- Âne Sauvage d'AsieFrench
- HémioneFrench
- HémippeFrench
- TurkmeneFrench
- ઘુડખરGujarati
- GhudkharGujarati
- Kulan / КуланSerbian (Latin)
- PereHebrew
- פראHebrew
- חמור הבר האסייתיHebrew
- KhurHindi
- Jangli gadhaHindi
- kulán (onager)Hungarian
- EmioneItalian
- Asino Selvatico AsiaticoItalian
- アジアノロバJapanese
- ҚұланKazakh
- 오나거Korean
- 아시아당나귀Korean
- KulanasLithuanian
- Azijinis asilasLithuanian
- KhulanMongolian
- जंगली गाढवMarathi
- HalveselNorwegian Bokmål
- Asiatisk VilleselNorwegian Bokmål
- Aziatische Wilde EzelDutch
- kułanPolish
- Kułan azjatyckiPolish
- HemíonoPortuguese
- Asno-asiáticoPortuguese
- Asno-selvagem-asiáticoPortuguese
- ДжигетайRussian
- halvåsnaSwedish
- asiatisk vildåsnaSwedish
- GulanTurkmen
- Avrasya Yaban EşeğiTurkish
- КуланUkrainian
- 亞洲野驢Chinese
- 蒙古野驴Chinese
- Yě lǘChinese
Relatives of the onager
Other species in the same genus Equus.
Plains zebra
Equus quagga
Wild horse
Equus ferus
Grévy's zebra
Equus grevyi
Mountain zebra
Equus zebra
African wild ass
Equus africanus
Kiang
Equus kiang
CompareOnager vs Plains zebraOnager vs Wild horseOnager vs Grévy's zebraOnager vs Mountain zebra
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the onager?
The onager is a mammal in the family Equidae, genus Equus, and order Perissodactyla.
How heavy is an onager?
An adult onager has a body mass of 240 kg, which places it in the large size class.
What does the onager eat?
The onager is a herbivore.
How long does an onager live?
The onager has a lifespan of 28.86 years, with values up to 38.8 years reported.
How many young does an onager have?
The onager has 1 young per litter, at a rate of 0.7 litters per year, after a gestation period of 346 days.
Who named the onager?
The scientific name Equus hemionus was given by Pallas, 1775.
What are other names for the onager?
The onager is also called the khur, kulan, hemione, Gobi kulan and Asian zebra.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Onager (Equus hemionus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/onager
“Onager (Equus hemionus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/onager.
@misc{onager_2026,
title = {Onager (Equus hemionus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/onager},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}