In the Late Pleistocene it was widespread throughout much of western Eurasia from the Middle East to Europe, especially along the Mediterranean, with fossil reports from Italy, Turkey, Spain, France and Portugal.

[3] The exact systematic position was formerly unclear but recent genetic and morphological analysis suggested that it is closely related to the Asiatic wild ass.

[4][5] A 2017 genetic study based on a partial mitochondrial genome suggested that it was a subspecies of Asiatic wild ass, closer to the Khur than the Persian onager.

[6] However, study of the full mitochondral and nuclear genomes of specimens from Çatalhöyük and Çadır Höyük in Anatolia (present day Turkey) dating to the early-mid 1st millennium BC, which represent the youngest known remains of the species (with the youngest specimen dated to around 2698–2356 cal years Before Present, or around 748–406 cal years BC) , suggest that all modern Asiatic wild ass lineages (sensu lato, including the kiang) are more closely related to each other than to E. hydruntinus, with the split between hydruntines and Asiatic wild asses estimated at around 800-600 thousand years ago.

[9] Dental wear analysis of specimens from the Iberian Peninsula suggests a primarily grazing diet, though they appear to have been flexible feeders, having seasonally consumed browse.

[10][11] Dental microwear evidence from Late Pleistocene specimens from the Crimean Peninsula likewise reveal it had a diet mainly composed of abrasive grasses.