🇧🇹Bhutan·National Animal
🐂Takin
A goat-antelope said to have been built from leftover bones.
The takin is a hefty Himalayan mammal — somewhere between a goat, a wildebeest, and a small ox — found in the high forests of Bhutan, Nepal, and southern China. It's Bhutan's national animal and a Vulnerable species.
Why this animal?
A Bhutanese legend tells of the 15th-century saint Lama Drukpa Kunley, who supposedly created the takin from the leftover bones of a goat and a cow after a feast. The animal stuck as a sacred symbol of the country.
Things to know
- ·Takins have an oily coat that's naturally waterproof — they produce sebum that coats their wool like a built-in raincoat.
- ·Their split hooves work like climbing crampons on steep, mossy Himalayan slopes.
- ·Adult males can weigh up to 350 kg and stand 1.4 metres at the shoulder.
- ·In winter they descend to forested valleys; in summer they climb to alpine meadows above 4,000 metres.
- ·The Motithang Takin Preserve in Thimphu, Bhutan's capital, was created when royal park animals had to be released — they refused to leave the city.