HOLOCENE DISTRIBUTION OF THE ASIATIC WILD ASS (<i>EQUUS HEMIONUS</i>, EQUIDAE, PERISSODACTYLA) IN KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract

The Asiatic wild ass is one of the last wild, free-roaming equid species left in Northern Eurasia. Once widespread across Asia and Eastern Europe, the wild ass is presently listed as a near-threatened species on the IUCN Red List. The conservation of this species is one of important issues of wildlife ecology, while investigating its prehistoric range may provide some perspective into its current distribution and abundance. However, the data available on its past distribution are limited to the last few centuries. We review the available information using both published and unpublished sources to document the sub-fossil sites in Kazakhstan where bones of the species have been reported. Our analysis reveals 70 such sites of Holocene age ranging from Neolithic to modern years. The past range in the Neolithic-Eneolithic and Bronze Age extended from the steppe zone in the north to the desert zone in the south of Kazakhstan. In the Iron Age, remains of Equus hemionus became absent from the fossil record in the northern and central parts of Kazakhstan, thus suggesting a decreased range or abundance of the equid. This coincided with climate changes that occurred during the Bronze–Iron Age transition and the development of nomadic pastoralism. Since the Iron Age human societies in western and central Kazakhstan were predominantly nomadic herders, and livestock impacts on resources could have limited the wild ass distribution. An increased anthropogenic disturbance in 19–20 centuries could eventually have led to population decline in Asiatic wild ass and its extinction in the wild.