What is "onager"

Koulan \Kou"lan\, n. [Native name.] (Zo["o]l.) A wild horse ( Equus onager or Asinus onager) inhabiting the plains of Central Asia; -- called also gour, khur, and onager. [Written also kulan.]

Note: It is sometimes confounded with the dziggetai, to which it is closely related. It is gray in winter, but fulvous in summer. It has a well defined, dark, dorsal stripe, and a short, erect mane. In size, it is intermediate between the horse and ass.

Asiatic wild ass, mid-14c., from Latin onager, from Greek onagros, from onos "ass" (related to Latin asinus, but the ultimate source is unknown) + agrios "wild," literally "living in the fields," from agros "field" (see acre).

n. 1 A wild ass, ''Equus hemionus'', especially the koulan. 2 (context military historical English) A military engine acting like a sling, which threw stones from a bag or wooden bucket, and was operated by machinery.

1. n. medieval artillery used during sieges; a heavy war engine for hurling large stones and other missiles [syn: catapult, arbalest, arbalist, ballista, bricole, mangonel, trebuchet, trebucket]

2. Asiatic wild ass [syn: Equus hemionus]

3. [also: onagri (pl)]

The onager (Equus hemionus) , also known as hemione or Asiatic wild ass, is a large equid of the family Equidae ( horse family) native to Asia. A member of the subgenus Asinus, the onager was described and given its binomial name by German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1775. Five subspecies have been recognized, one of which is extinct.

The Asiatic wild ass is larger than African wild ass at about and (head-body length). They are reddish-brown or yellowish-brown in color and have broad dorsal stripe on the middle of the back. Unlike most horses and donkeys, onagers have never been domesticated. They are among the fastest mammals, as they can run as fast as 64 km/h (40 mph) to 70 km/h (43 mph). The onager is closely related to the African wild ass, as they both shared the same ancestor. The kiang, formerly considered a subspecies of Equus hemionus, diverged from the Asiatic wild ass and has been acknowledged as a distinct species.

The onager formerly had a wider range from southwest and central to northern Asian countries, such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Russia, and Siberia. During early 20th century, the species lost most of its ranges in the Middle East and Eastern Asia. Today, onagers live in deserts and other arid regions of Iran, Pakistan, India, and Mongolia, including in Central Asian hot and cold deserts of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and China.

Other than deserts, it lives in grasslands, plains, steppes, and savannahs. Like many other large grazing animals, the onager's range has contracted greatly under the pressures of poaching and habitat loss. Previously listed as Endangered, onagers have been classified as Near Threatened by IUCN in 2015. Of the five subspecies, one is extinct, two are endangered, and two are near threatened (their status in China is not well known). Persian onagers are currently being reintroduced in the Middle East as replacement for the extinct Syrian wild ass in the Arabian Peninsula, Israel and Jordan.

The onager was a Roman siege engine that is a type of catapult that uses a torsional force, generally from twisted rope, to store energy for the shot. The onager consisted of a large frame placed on the ground to whose front end a vertical frame of solid timber was rigidly fixed. A vertical spoke that passed through a rope bundle fastened to the frame had a sling attached which contained a projectile.

To fire it, the spoke or arm was forced down, against the tension of twisted ropes or other springs, by a windlass, and then suddenly released. As the sling swung outwards, one end would release, as with a staff-sling, and the projectile would be hurled forward. The arm would then be caught by a padded beam or bed, when it 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. They could be outranged by bows.

In the Middle Ages (recorded from around 1200) a less powerful version of the onager was used that held the projectile(s) in a fixed bowl instead of a sling. Some have speculated that contemporary drawings depicting fixed bowls were intentionally misleading and that catapults at the time still used slings. Such deception would occur because, at the time, catapults were state of the art weapons of war and their exact operation and construction would be a closely guarded secret.

It derived its name from the kicking action of the machine, similar to that of an onager (wild ass). This engine was sometimes called the mangonel, although that name may have also been used for a variety of siege engines.