Onager of roads, railway lines, and fences required to support mining activities. The Asiatic wild ass is vulnerable to diseases, as well. A disease known as the "South African horse sickness" caused a major decline to the Indian wild ass population in the 1960s. However, the subspecies is no longer under threat to such disease and is continuously increasing in number. Various breeding programs have been started for the onager subspecies in captivity and in the wild, which increases their numbers to save the endangered species. The species is legally protected in many of the countries in which it occurs. The
Animal studies and to understand animals as beings-in-themselves, separate from our knowledge of them. Because the field is still developing, scholars and others have some freedom to define their own criteria about what issues may structure the field. As an interdisciplinary subject, animal studies exists at the intersection of a number of different fields of study. Different fields began to turn to animals as an important topic at different times and for various reasons, and these separate disciplinary histories shape how scholars approach animal studies. In part, animal studies developed out of the animal liberation movement and was grounded in ethical questions