Persian onager the wild in the Negev Mountains area, intended to replace the local subspecies gone extinct. The introduced onagers have since established a stable population around 200 individuals. Persian onager The Persian onager ("Equus hemionus onager"), also called the Persian wild ass or Persian zebra, is a subspecies of onager (Asiatic wild ass) native to Iran. It is listed as Endangered, with no more than 600 individuals left in the wild and only 30 individuals living within North American institutions. The Persian onager is also simply named ', meaning "swift" in the Persian language, in which the word "gur" is preserved
Onager (weapon) could be winched back again. The onagers of the Roman Empire were mainly used for besieging forts or settlements. They would often be armed with large stones that could be covered with a combustible substance and set alight. The onager was used from the 4th century AD until the 6th century AD. The late-fourth century author Ammianus Marcellinus describes 'onager' as a neologism for scorpions and relates various incidents in which the engines fire both rocks and arrow-shaped missiles. The late-fourth or early-fifth century military writer Vegetius stipulates that a legion ought to field ten onagers, one for each cohort.