Bhutan takin

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Bhutan takin
Bhutan Takin, Jigme Dorji National Park
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Bovidae
Subfamily:	Caprinae
Tribe:	Caprini
Genus:	Budorcas
Species:	B. taxicolor
Subspecies:	B. t. whitei
Trinomial name
Budorcas taxicolor whitei Lydekker, 1907

The Bhutan Takin (Budorcas taxicolor whitei) is a subspecies of Takin native to Bhutan but also found in North Eastern India, Western part of China, and Tibet. Locally known as drong gimtse, it holds the honor of being Bhutan's national animal.

Takin have strongly featured in the popular Bhutan myth of divine cloning by the ‘Divine Madman’ Lam Drukpa Kunley, reinforcing the Takin’s cultural and religious significance in Bhutan.^[1]

Being social creatures with a varied herbivorous diet, they thrive in the temperate and subtropical forests of eastern Asia. The species has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2015.^[2] It is protected in all range countries.