Onager a subspecies of the onager as "E. hemionus kiang", but recent molecular studies indicate it to be a distinct species, having diverged from the closest relative of the Mongolian wild ass's ancestor less than 500,000 years ago. Widely five recognized subspecies of the onager include: A sixth possible subspecies, the Gobi khulan ("E. h. luteus", also called the "chigetai" or "dziggetai") has been proposed, but may be synonymous with "E. h. hemionus". Debates over the taxonomic identity of the onager occurred until 1980. As of today, four living subspecies and one extinct subspecies of the Asiatic wild ass have been
Onager Persian onager alone has been reintroduced to Jordan and the deserts of Saudi Arabia. Onagers are notoriously untamable. Equids were used in ancient Sumer to pull wagons "circa" 2600 BC, and then chariots on the Standard of Ur, "circa" 2550 BC. Clutton-Brock (1992) suggests that these were donkeys rather than onagers on the basis of a "shoulder stripe". However, close examination of the animals (equids, sheep and cattle) on both sides of the piece indicate that what appears to be a stripe may well be a harness, a trapping, or a joint in the inlay. Onager The onager (; "Equus