--- title: "Gaur (Bos gaurus) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "The largest living wild cattle, whose herds, one warden wrote, are prepared to stand and fight a tiger rather than run." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/gaur-1.webp" published: "2026-10-11" updated: "2026-10-12" --- # Gaur (*Bos gaurus*) > **Status**: Checked against 9 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: The largest living wild cattle, whose herds, one warden wrote, are prepared to stand and fight a tiger rather than run. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: Post-Rock & Cinematic Orchestral // Anna Meredith, "Nautilus" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/1RM7TvRrWYvg5GICBEQrFS) > **Vibe Match**: In one encounter a game warden described, a gaur herd facing a tiger bunched up and moved forward instead of scattering. Anna Meredith's Nautilus advances the same way: one low brass figure repeats and thickens, pushing forward as a single heavy block. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Bos gaurus* - **Danger Level**: Deadly - **Conservation Status**: Vulnerable ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2016-2.rlts.t2891a46363646.en)) - **Superpower**: Herds that, one warden wrote, stand and fight a tiger rather than run - **Habitat**: Forests and grassy openings in scattered areas of South and Southeast Asia, from India to Peninsular Malaysia - **Diet**: Grasses, leaves, fruit, twigs, bark and bamboo - **Tags**: mammal, ungulate, herbivore, forest, horns, giant-size ## Natural History & Behavior ## Standing Up to a Tiger Faced with a tiger, a gaur herd may not scatter. A game warden in Malaya wrote in 1953 that the gaur, which he called seladang, may fear a tiger, but they know their combined strength and are prepared to stand and fight rather than run. In one encounter he described, the herd bunched up and moved forward toward the tiger's angry voice. People get a different reaction. Under normal conditions, he wrote, gaur fear man, and the sight or sound of one is enough to set them running. That does not make them harmless. In Tamil Nadu's compensation records from 2016 to 2024, nearly a third of conflicts with gaur were human injuries, and about 9% were human deaths. ## Wild Cattle, Built Big The gaur is the largest living wild cattle species. An adult female weighs about 600 kg. AnAge, a database of animal lifespans, puts the average adult gaur at 825 kg. Researchers measured captive gaur in zoos in India and the USA and found that males top out at a shoulder height of 175 cm, and females at 147 cm. The same study found that a gaur's horns show its age: the more white on the horns, the older the animal. One gaur in captivity lived 26.2 years. ## Grass, Leaves and Bark Gaur once lived across mainland South and Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. Now they survive in scattered areas of ten countries: Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Peninsular Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam. Around 85% of them live in India. They range from sea level to at least 2,800 m. A gaur is both a grazer and a browser. It reportedly eats mostly young green grasses, plus leaves, fruit, twigs, bark and bamboo. In two reserves in Goa, 32 plant species made up the diet, with leaves the preferred food at 87%. Captive gaur are reported to eat about 20 kg of green fodder a day. > **Night shift in disturbed areas** > In undisturbed areas, gaur are mainly active by day. Where human disturbance is high, they are reported to become mainly nocturnal. ## Vulnerable and Shrinking The IUCN rated the gaur Vulnerable in 2016. Its assessment says the gaur's global distribution has shrunk by over 80% in the past 100 years, and that it is now mostly limited to habitats within protected areas. The main causes are hunting for wild meat and for the horn trade in Southeast Asia, and habitat loss and hunting for meat in South Asia. Disease is a potential threat too. Rinderpest and foot-and-mouth disease, passed on by domestic cattle, are a potentially serious danger across the gaur's range. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is a gaur the same animal as a mithun or gayal? Not quite. The mithun, also called the gayal, is the domesticated form of the gaur, and the IUCN treats it as a separate species, Bos frontalis. The gaur's Red List assessment leaves the domestic animal out. *(Source: [Duckworth et al. 2016]())* ### How many gaur are left? The IUCN estimates 15,000 to 35,000 animals worldwide, and it calls most of the population figures for the gaur little more than guesses. The trend is decreasing. *(Source: [Duckworth et al. 2016]())* ### Has a gaur been cloned? Scientists once put cells from a gaur bull into emptied egg cells from domestic cows. Some of the embryos grew inside surrogate cows, and two fetuses went past 180 and 200 days of gestation. Their cell nuclei were gaur, but their mitochondrial DNA came from the cow's egg. *(Source: [Lanza et al. 2000]())* ## Sources 1. [Duckworth et al. (2016). Bos gaurus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T2891A46363646.]() 2. [Ogilvie (1953). The Behaviour of Seladang (Bibos gaurus). Oryx.]() 3. [Ahrestani et al. (2011). Contrasting timing of parturition of chital Axis axis and gaur Bos gaurus in tropical South India - the role of body mass and seasonal forage quality. Oikos.]() 4. [Ahrestani & Prins (2011). Age and sex determination of gaur Bos gaurus (Bovidae). Mammalia.]() 5. [Kamalakkannan et al. (2020). The complete mitochondrial genome of Indian gaur, Bos gaurus and its phylogenetic implications. Scientific Reports.]() 6. [Gad & Shyama (2009). Studies on the food and feeding habits of Gaur Bos gaurus H. Smith (Mammalia: Artiodactyla: Bovidae) in two protected areas of Goa. Journal of Threatened Taxa.]() 7. [Lanza et al. (2000). Cloning of an Endangered Species (Bos gaurus) Using Interspecies Nuclear Transfer.]() 8. [AnAge entry for Bos frontalis (Gaur). AnAge: The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database, Build 15, Human Ageing Genomic Resources.]() 9. [Shameer et al. (2025). Ecological and temporal drivers of human-gaur conflict in Tamil Nadu, India. Discover Animals.]() *Published October 11, 2026. 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