Creating Apps in Kivy

Colophon

The animal on the cover of Creating Apps in Kivy is a kiang (Equus kiang). Native to the Tibetan plateau, the kiang is the largest of all wild asses and has never been domesticated. They bear a resemblance to donkeys and mules, although they are generally brown and tan as opposed to gray.

Adult kiangs can reach 13.3 hands (or 55 inches) tall at the shoulder and weigh around 900 pounds. They have large heads with convex muzzles and short, upright manes. A dark brown dorsal stripe reaches from the mane to the tail, a feature that can be found on many varieties of wild ass.

The kiang’s Tibetan habitat is mostly alpine meadows and steppe country, where there is plenty of grass and shrubbery for grazing. The only predators the kiang faces, aside from humans, are wolves. The first response of a kiang is to flee from danger, but they will also use their powerful kick to deter an attacker if necessary.

Sometimes kiangs gather together in large herds, but most of the time they are separated into smaller groups. Older males have harems of females that can grow to almost 50 members. Each stallion controls an area of about two square miles, and vicious fights often occur when a younger male challenges a stallion’s supremacy.

Although population numbers have declined in recent years due to encroaching human territory and having to share grazing space with farmers’ herds, the kiang is still considered a common sight and is not listed as threatened or endangered. In 1950, Thubten Jigme Norbu, ...