The wild ass is found only in the desert parts of the high plateau; the beaver only in Lake Zeribar, near Sulefmaniyeh.
The Iranian wild ass differs in some respects from the Mesopotamian.

His skin is smooth, like that of a deer, and of a reddish color, the belly and hinder parts partaking of a silvery gray; his head and ears are large and somewhat clumsy; but his neck is fine, and his legs are beautifully slender.

His mane is short and black, and he has a black tuft at the end of his tail, but no dark line runs along his back or crosses his shoulders.

The Persians call him the _gur-khur_, and chase him with occasional success, regarding his flesh as a great delicacy.
He appears to be the _Asinus onager_ of naturalists, a distinct species from the _Asinus hemippus_ of Mesopotamia, and the _Asinus hemionus_ of Thibet and Tartary.
It is doubtful whether some kind of wild cattle does not still inhabit the more remote tracts of Kurdistan.

The natives mention among the animals of their country "the mountain ox;" and though it has been suggested that the beast intended is the elk, it is perhaps as likely to be the Aurochs, which seems certainly to have been a native of the adjacent country of Mesopotamia in ancient times.