Tim writes: I came across two female Takins in the forest, and each female had a calf, one from this year and one from last year. The two-year old calf kept trying to show dominance over the younger calf, and this is the moment when the older calf with horns charged at the younger calf without horns. You can see the dust under the little one’s hooves as it tried to escape. Both of these calves were tiny compared to the full-grown females nearby.
The Golden Takin is a rare mammal that inhabits the same mountainous bamboo thicket forests as Giant Panda. There are four subspecies and this is the form that lives in Sichuan (Budorcas taxicolor tibetana) with more blotchy flanks than the true Golden Takin (B.t.bedfordi) from Shaanxi, NW China. The remaining two subspecies are the Mishmi Takin (B.t.taxicolor) from Tibet and Arunchal Pradesh and the Bhutan Takin (B.t.whitei). They resemble both Musk Ox and Wildebeests in size and shape but they are not closely related to either. They are more closely related to sheep and goats. In autumn they descend to lower elevations which makes them easier to find and photograph, though they are much more active at night. I photographed these young Takins at Tangjiahe in Sichuan, China.
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You can see Mishmi Takins in Paignton zoo .
Great looking animals and if you live in the UK you don’t have to fly anywhere.
So you can knock them off your list without radically increasing CO2!
I really enjoy these guest blogs featuring exotic birds and animals but am concerned that it might make more people want to go and see them in the wild.
Yet again there are no easy answers.