Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but people are
gradually beginning to shift away from the lockdown/quarantine/isolation/etc.
Well, not ‘people’ as in ‘private individuals’, more as in ‘public institutions’
and ‘governments’ and the like. There is a lot of arguing about this, both pro
and contra, but the tide is moving, no doubt about it. Even in best of
situations, a lockdown is a part-time solution, because no one can hide forever,
and, well, not everyone wants to. Things are beginning to come to… something,
but what it will be, is anyone’s guess. What next?
Well, today I wanted to talk about the yaks. Yes, we’re
talking about the mountain cousins of the common cattle, and-
Taxonomy first. I.e., the domestic and the wild yaks may
look similar enough, especially to a layperson, but scientists established that
by now they are two different species instead.
The evolution of the yak is rather convoluted as well; it
can hybridize with the common cattle; the males are infertile slash sterile,
but the females are not. Moreover, the yaks can hybridize with the American
bison, gaur and banteng – and the latter two are worth a special notice,
because the banteng is a domesticated cousin of the gaur, which might be the
biggest species of wild cattle in tropical Asia, a beast big, strong and heavy
enough to stand up even to the tiger.
…As for the yak evolution, it seems that the yak – we are
talking about the wild yak, the domesticated species came later – is more
closely related to the bison rather than to the domestic cattle (and maybe its’
cousin, the now-extinct aurochs), from which it had diverged anywhen from one
to five million years ago. What next?
On one hand, there are many colored variations of the domestic yak, as opposed to the
well-known black – there are even white yaks, (and you can find their pictures
on the Internet). On the other hand, the yaks played an important role in the
last few seasons of MLP: FiM, now ended, but that merits a special mention as
well.
See, the ‘student 6’ of MLP: FiM embodied racial variety and
interracial cooperation, which proved to be important in the series’ finale.
Yes, CG (and her cohorts, maybe), embodied racism on the show, (sort of), but
it worked. By ‘worked’, I meant that she got to be a good villain, and as for
her fate… well, with the conclusion of the series the franchise is getting
rebooted and revamped, which includes – the ‘Equestria Girls’ series. In it, the
more human counterparts to the mainline little ponies are beginning to aim at
teens, whereas the original series – more at prepubescent children, especially
of the female gender…at least that was the initial target audience. Somehow,
over the years and the seasons, the MLP: FiM franchise grew into something else,
and it will continue to grow as years and seasons go by… hopefully, COVID-19 or
no. (Cough, Comic-con 2020 cancelled, cough). Is it a good reason to be
optimistic? Normally not, but at this day and age, given that real life sucks
more than it normally does, any port in a storm and all that.
…As for the yaks… yeah, I do not know why the franchise
decided to include them, especially since they had the American bison already… there
are also the European bison aka the wisent, and both species consist of several
subspecies. Neither species is particularly flourishing, but the American bison
is proportionally better off than its’ wisent cousin is; as for the wild yak,
right now, its’ status is ‘vulnerable’; I suppose that that’s fair, given how
poorly some of the other species of wild cattle have fared, (cough, the aurochs
is extinct, cough)…
Well, this is enough for now, I reckon. See you all soon!
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