Mithun, the Gayal

Description:

Bos frontalis is a large semi-domesticated bovine found in north-eastern India, Bangladesh, northern Myanmar, and in the Yunan Province of China. It's slightly smaller than Gaur with shoter limbs and stands much lower at the withers. Gayals are basically inhabitants of hill forests. In India semi-domesticated gayals are kept by several groups of hill people in Tripura, Mizoram, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. To Adi people (Bangni-Bokar Lhobas), the possesion of gayal's the traditional measure of a family's wealth.

Habitat:

Hilly grassy warm forests.

Notes:

This calf was spotted one morning at a remote (Subansiri) river side, some 30km off south of Daporijo, Arunachal Pradesh during our angling expedition. It's family members - which had disappeared by the morning into the thick surrounding forests - didn't let some of our members sleep in the previous night as they demolished some tents and made lots of hunnn, hunnn...noise. This one didn't budge till we gave him some fistful of table salt, which perhaps they're real thirsty of?!