No. 455 Budorcas Taxicolor. — The Takin
Native Names.—Takin or Takhon, pronounced nasally.
Habitat.—The Mishmi hills, Assam, Thibet.
Description.—“The takin is a large, heavily-built ruminant, about 3 feet 6 inches high at the shoulder and 6 feet in total length. The external peculiarities of the animal are: first, peculiar angularly curved horns in both sexes; second, the enormously arched chevron; third, the very great development of the spurious hoofs, which are obtusely conical, and about 1½ inches in length in a small specimen.
“The colour of the adult in one stage is fulvous throughout, some of the hairs being dark tipped. Legs, tail, muzzle and dorsal stripe black.
“Old bulls appear to become of an uniform brownish-black at times, but the colour doubtless depends on the season, as each hair has the basal two-thirds yellow, and its apical third black, and the young its hair brown with a dark tint. The takin, pronounced takhon (nasally), is found just outside British limits in the Mishmi and Akha hills, north of Assam. It extends into the mountainous parts of Chinese Thibet, whence it has lately been procured by the adventurous Abbé David, and has been described by the great French naturalist A. Milne-Edwards, in his work ‘Recherches sur les Mammifères,’ with some osteological details which were hitherto wanting, but no more than the limb bones appear to have been obtained.
“The horns of the takin have been considered to bear some likeness to those of the gnu (Catoblepas), but I fail to trace a resemblance. Hodgson’s description of the horns is as follows:—
“‘The horns of the takin are inserted on the highest part of the forehead. The horns are nearly in contact at their bases. Their direction is first vertically upwards, then horizontally outwards, or to the sides, and then almost as horizontally backwards. The length of each horn is about 20 inches along the curves, but their thickness is great. The tail is about three inches long.’
“This remarkable animal was originally described by Brian Hodgson in 1850, from specimens procured by Major Jenkins from the Mishmis, north-east of Sadya. Skulls and skins are fairly common among the residents of Debroogurh, and two perfect skins of adults were lately presented by Colonel Graham to the Indian Museum.
“It is to be regretted that the skeleton of the animal remains unknown to science; from information collected by myself from the Mishmis, it was apparent that they might easily be procured.
“The animal would appear to range from about 8000 feet to the Alpine region, which is stated to be its habitat.
“While at Sadya a Mishmi chief pointed me out various spurs of the Himalayas, tantalisingly close, where he stated that he had hunted the animal.
“Hodgson’s paper on the takin was published in the ‘Jour. As. Soc.’ vol. xix., pp. 65, 75, with three plates, a drawing of the animal, and two views of the skull.
“The next figure was by Wolf, in the ‘Proc. of the Zool. Soc.’ for 1853, pt. xxxvi., and is perhaps the worst he has ever done. Neither of these drawings are correct; and it is to be hoped that Professor Milne-Edwards has more materials for his picture than flat skins and limb bones.
“Professor Milne-Edwards was inclined to consider his specimens a distinct variety from the Mishmi animal, and calls it Budorcas taxicola (sic) var. Tibetana.
“The difference the professor points out, namely the fulvous colour and the thinner undeveloped horns, exist in various specimens of the Mishmi takin, and there can be no question but that the animals are identical.
“The slaty colour of Wolf’s drawing is probably due to an incorrect conception of Hodgson’s term grey, which he defines as a yellowish-grey.
“The takin is essentially a serow (Nemorhoedus), with affinities to the bovines through the musk ox (Ovibos moschata), and other relationship to the sheep, goat and antelope. The development of the spurious hoofs would indicate that it frequents very steep ground.”—J. C.
← Back to Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon