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 replacements for the extinct Syrian wild ass in the Arabian Peninsula, Israel and Jordan.