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The Last of Their Kind
The Onager
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- The onager was a wild donkey that lived in the
deserts of Syria.
- The name onager comes from the Greek onagros
or wild ass. Its scientific name is equus hemiomus
onage.
- In Arabic the onager is known as al-himar, al-wahshi,
al fara' and al-'ir, the latter name used for
the domestic ass as well.
- When water became scarce during the hot summer
months, onagers drank salt water to survive.
- The onager was a gregarious animal of the dry
grassy plains and the Old Testament described its
habitat precisely as "the steppe for his home and the
salt land for his dwelling" (Job 39:6).
- It was found in Palestine and the countries surrounding
it for over 2000 years after the events of the
Old Testament, but had almost disappeared by the
middle of the nineteenth century.
- A few lived on in Iraq and southeast Jordan until
the early 1900s, but now these are gone as well.
- Its speed and ability to withstand the worst
conditions of the Hammad and Nafud deserts left
its numbers unaffected despite the intensive hunting
by successive cultures in the area. It was the
coming of firearms and automobiles that tipped
the scales against it.
- As far as the records show the last wild Syrian
onager was shot in 1927 as it came down for water
at the Al Ghams oasis not far from Lake Azraq
in the Sirhan depression of north Arabia.
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