Pygmy mammoths (Pig-mee ma'am-moths)

A species a long time in the making. They started with the genes of mammoths and mastodons - so, Ice Age megafauna - then were technically extinct but lived on through elephant species, in this case in Altaia. When the Morandi and Venice expeditions came to Eastern Altaia, in Josun and Huanjin specifically but with some exposure to Tirjadi, they encountered the pygmy elephant. Thought it was cute. Thought it would fit in their caravans. So, there was a population of pygmy elephants that were brought to Karanya - a temperate climate - and treated as pets because they are like the elephant version of a forever puppy. They multiplied quite readily but also had a 60% chance of obesity because when you're an ignorant noble, you feed your pets to the point of rotundness. Then the so-called Snow Princess, Yulia, set off a revival of the Ice Age. There was chaos. There was famine and drought. The elephant pets got loose. The vein of the Tree of Life that ran through Karanya, specifically in the rivers and mountains, was stronger because of the presence of Yulia's magic at the time. So, the elephants evolved instead of dying - getting back their ancestral wooly coats and stamina in the colder, harsher seasons. No one in this time has a taste for mammoth meat, so the pygmy mammoths roam freely in the forests - the same forests that house such creatures as the Leshy and the werewolf. They are still very cute. They are just also thought of as scary beasts in the dark (when you can't see in the forests) and as nuisances who might eat from farmers' crops. More recent populations of immigrants from Kachatar (a group with a culture similar to the Punjabi) have re-adopted the now-wild pygmy mammoths to keep weeds down, plow fields, and generally be a nice reminder of home (where regular Altaian elephants live, as opposed to the wooly ones).