Yaks support the livelihoods of millions of people on the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan ranges. Climate change is disrupting their traditional grazing systems and creating new welfare challenges for these high-altitude specialists.
Yak welfare is inseparable from the cultural and ecological systems of Himalayan and Central Asian herding communities. These animals have co-evolved with high-altitude environments and the pastoralists who manage them — their welfare depends on access to appropriate seasonal pastures that climate change is increasingly disrupting. Changing snowfall patterns reduce winter grazing access; warming summers push animals to higher altitudes in search of cooler conditions; drought reduces pasture productivity. Welfare interventions that support traditional seasonal herding systems, resist lowland intensification that strips yaks of their environmental context, and assist communities in adapting to climate change are the most effective responses to these emerging pressures.