Gayal

This is the gayal, a semi-domesticated animal kept by farmers in the Eastern Himalaya, not a wild species; its wild ancestor is the gaur. The gayal, also called the mithun or Drung ox, is a large, semi-domesticated cattle species of the Eastern Himalayan foothills. It is somewhat smaller than the gaur, with shorter legs, a flat forehead, thick horns that go almost straight out from the head and curve slightly upwards at the tips, and a larger dewlap in bulls. The skin is blackish-brown with white or yellowish lower legs. Some domestic animals are parti-coloured or white (Wikipedia, general species account).

Herds roam and forage freely in forest and return to their owners on their own, with the owners giving supplementary care. They are kept mainly for meat, with milk used mostly in north-east India and Bhutan, and have traditionally served as currency, in dowries and in festival sacrifices. A 2020 mitochondrial study found the gaur to be the maternal ancestor, with domestication probably over 8,000 years ago along the Assam-Burma border and some gene flow from zebu and taurine cattle (Wikipedia, general species account).