In the high-altitude forests of the Min Mountains of Tibet and China, an animal called the takin makes its home. Although as large as a cow, it is not often seen because it hides when people come near, although some have attacked hunters.
It is an odd-looking creature with a big clumsy-looking head and a thick, short neck. Atop the male’s large ears, that stand straight out when listening to something, rises a pair of strong U-shaped black and rather blunt horns, pointing backwards.
Takins weigh about 650 pounds and look clumsy, but they are extremely nimble, making trails in the mountain areas at the top edge of canyons, where people would be afraid to go.
Although they look like cows, they are actually related to mountain goats. Their hoofs are more like those of goats, and their calls are a combination of a bull’s bellow and the bleating of a goat. They also chew the cud.
Their food is a variety of plants, leaves, thistles, wild flowers, nettles, berry vines and tender new branches of trees. To reach the foliage or leaves on branches too high for them, they will stand on their hind legs and lean the front ones against the tree. Sometimes they will bend a young tree down to the ground by straddling it. In winter when snow is deep and plants are buried, they eat the foliage of trees as high as they can reach. Sometimes this is not enough food, and in severe weather many of them die.
Herds may have from 10 to 30 takins, including parents and young ones. Mothers take full care of their babies since the fathers don’t take much interest in the young. Sometimes the bulls seem to get playful together, but soon the playfulness turns into serious fights.
Babies are cute as can be, usually a fuzzy dark-brown color, not at all like their parents who are grayish-red with a black mouth and snout. But as they mature they gradually change to the adult coloring. Youngsters are quick to play together, tumbling and trying to outrun each other. Female baby-sitters often take over responsibility for the babies and young ones, caring for a dozen or more of them.
At one time takins were killed by native hunters for their tasty meat and pretty hides, but now the Chinese government fully protects them from hunters.
These animals remind us of an expression in a Bible verse that says, “The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works.” Psalm 145:99The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. (Psalm 145:9). A little further on it is written, “Happy is he... whose hope is in the Lord his God: which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is.” Psalm 146:5,65Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: 6Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: (Psalm 146:5‑6). Is He your Lord and Saviour?
ML-12/01/1991