Bhutan's national animal, the takin, is the largest mammal you've never heard of

The takin is a vulnerable hoofed herbivore that sits in the same subfamily as goats and sheep, but is much larger than those relatives. It's also called a cattle chamois or gnu goat, which might be helpful to some in terms of finding the right mental spot for it. You could also think of it as a cross between a goat, a cow and a antelope.

The takin has small ears, a bulbous nose and small, backward-pointing horns. The kind of takin you find in Bhutan has a shaggy brown coat that morphs into black around the snout, belly and legs.

It's a rather clumsy-looking animal, its thick, cow-like torso appearing a bit too big and stocky for its short legs. Yet it's actually a highly nimble creature, and can often be found up steep mountainsides.

Bhutan's takins live in the country's Himalayan forests and mountains in the north of the country. They can be found anywhere from 1,000 to 4,500 m above sea level depending on the season.

They mostly live in families of around 20 individuals, although some older males live solitary lives.

Known locally as dong gyem tsey, the Bhutan takin was chosen as the national animal because it's rare and native, and also holds a special place in Bhutanese mythology and religion.

Legend says that in the 1400s, the saint Lama Drukpa Kunley (also known as the Divine Madman) visited Bhutan and demanded his devotees to provide him with a lunch of a whole cow and a whole goat. Having eaten them both, he then placed the head of the goat on the bones of the cow's body, and commanded his creation to get up and go graze on the mountainsides. Which it did, and so was born the takin.

The takin is classified as vulnerable. Even though it lives in rugged and remote regions, its numbers have declined as a result of overhunting, habitat loss and competition with domestic yaks for grazing pasture, among other things.

The Bhutan takin (Budorcus taxicolor whitei) is actually one of four subspecies. The other subspecies live in Tibet, China, Myanmar, Nepal and India.

Fortunately, the Bhutanese people are huge into conservation, and they're particularly interested in protecting their national animal! So while the species as a whole is declining in numbers, the Bhutan takin subspecies has a hopeful future. That said, it needs all the help it can get, as Bhutan takins are believed to number not even a thousand.

In winter, takins drop down into the valleys, but in summer they climb up to subalpine forests and alpine meadows to nosh on luxuriant grass and grow fat. A grown male can even reach above a tonne in weight by the end of summer!

You can see Bhutan takins in the small, forested Motithang Takin Preserve just outside the capital city of Thimphu if you want an assured sighting. This is where most visitors go. But it's far more exciting to spot a wild herd when on a Himalayan trek, in our opinion!

The popular Jomolhari trek, for instance, takes you into Jigme Dorji National Park where takins roam. This park is one of the easiest to access as a visitor as it's in the northwest corner of the country, making it relatively close to Paro, where the country's only international airport is located (as shown in the map below).

You might also like to know that Jigme Dorji is the only national park in Bhutan where you can see not only the national animal, but also:

Further to this, Jigme Dorji is home to Jomolhari Peak, arguably the most sacred mountain in Bhutan.

Nobody is allowed to climb Mt Jomolhari as it's the Goddess Mountain

So suffice it to say, Jigme Dorji is the perfect park to visit – whether for a multiday trek or just a day's hike and picnic – for the curious traveller hoping to experience something quintessentially Bhutanese, including spotting some truly wild Bhutan takins.