The Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus), which once ranged widely over the desert steppes of Mongolia, Russia, and the Arabian Peninsula, now survives only in small, isolated populations.

It disappeared from the Negev, the desert region in southern Israel, in the 1920s. But a remnant herd survived in the Shah of Iran’s zoo, and some of these animals were brought back to Israel before the Iranian revolution in 1979, where they were bred in captivity. Of this captive herd 28 animals were reintroduced to the desert beginning in 1982 with an additional 10 released in 1992.

But the Asiatic wild ass is truly feral and doesn’t tolerate the presence of people. So once released, the animals were difficult to find, much less to monitor.

By 2005 nobody really knew how the Asiatic wild ass populations were doing