shaheena sheikh: Gayal

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

There are two major hypotheses on the origin of the gayal:

It was domesticated from wild gaur;
It is a hybrid descendant from the crossing of wild gaur and domestic cattle, either Bos indicus or Bos taurus.

To date, neither hypothesis has been proven conclusively.

The gayal differs in several important particulars from the gaur:

It is somewhat smaller, with proportionately shorter limbs, and stands much lower at the withers.
The ridge on the back is less developed, and bulls have a larger dewlap on the throat.
The head is shorter and broader, with a perfectly flat forehead and a straight line between the bases of the horns.
The thick and massive horns are less flattened and much less curved than in the gaur, extending almost directly outwards from the sides of the head, and curving somewhat upwards at the tips, but without any inward inclination. Their extremities are thus much farther apart than in the gaur.
The female gayal is much smaller than the bull and has scarcely any dewlap on the throat.
The skin color of the head and body is blackish-brown in both sexes, and the lower portion of the limbs are white or yellowish.
The horns are of uniform blackish tint from base to tip.