Gayal

What do Gayal cattle look like?

The gayal is a large, semi-domesticated bovine, also called mithun or Drung ox. It stands lower at the withers than its wild relative the gaur, with shorter limbs and a less pronounced ridge along the back. Bulls carry a sizeable dewlap under the throat; cows are noticeably smaller and have only a slight dewlap. The head is short and broad, the forehead flat, and the line between the horn bases straight. The thick horns are heavy, not strongly flattened, and project outward from the sides of the head before curving slightly upward at the tips, leaving the horn ends widely spaced. The skin is blackish-brown over the body, while the lower parts of the legs are white or yellowish, and the horns are a uniform dark colour. Some tame animals are piebald or wholly white.

Where does the Gayal come from?

Lambert first used the binomial Bos frontalis in 1804 for a tame animal thought to come from Chittagong, and in 2003 the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature confirmed that name for the species. Genetic work has clarified two competing ideas about where the gayal came from: that it was tamed directly from wild gaur, or that it arose as a cross between gaur and ordinary domestic cattle. A 2020 study of full mitochondrial DNA settled the question of the maternal line by pointing to gaur as the mother of today's mithun, while a genome study from 2017 also shows gene flow from zebu and taurine stock. The animal is believed to have been brought under human control more than eight millennia ago in the border country between Assam and Burma.

What the Gayal is known for

Gayal are kept in a semi-wild state and are not commonly milked outside Northeast India. They are also not generally yoked for draught. In character they are largely left to range freely in the forest and to find their own way home, although more owners now herd them back each evening to guard against losses to dhole packs, which take calves. In the wild their foraging spreads seeds and their manure enriches the soil, so ecologists describe them as ecosystem engineers in the hill forests they inhabit.

How the Gayal is bred and kept

Because gayal roam in forest and return on their own, traditional husbandry involves little day-to-day handling. Modern keepers have begun to fence the range, often with living fences of planted trees, both to keep the animals out of crop fields (where they may be shot or fined for damage) and to bring them in at night. The National Research Centre on Mithun at Medziphema in Chümoukedima District, Nagaland, run under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, is the state centre for the breed. Its work covers identifying and characterising mithun germplasm, conserving and improving the animal for meat and milk, and serving as a national store of breeding information.

What the Gayal is kept for

Meat is the main product, and gayal are raised chiefly as a meat animal across most of their range. In Northeast India and Bhutan they are also used for milk, though milking is uncommon elsewhere. They are rarely worked. Ceremonial and social uses are at least as important as farming ones: gayal are given in bride-price, paid as fines, used to seal alliances, and offered in religious rites, with the sacrifice of a gayal thought to bring honour, blessing and a good outcome to the people involved.

The land and climate of the Gayal

Gayal live on the forested lower slopes of the Eastern Himalayas, between roughly 300 and 5,000 metres above sea level, where daytime temperatures sit in the twenties Celsius. They favour thick, hilly forest with bamboo, coarse grasses, streams, ponds and natural salt licks. Animals range through the hill tracts of Northeast India, Bangladesh's Chittagong Hills, Kachin State in Myanmar, parts of Bhutan, and the Trung and Salween river basins in Yunnan, China.

Who keeps the Gayal

Some two dozen peoples in China, Bangladesh, Myanmar and India are recorded as keeping gayal. The animal is central to the Tani communities of Arunachal Pradesh - the Idu Mishmi, Nyishi, Galo and Adi (Bangni-Booker Lhobas such as Pasi, Padam and Minyong) - and to a wide range of Naga groups such as the Ao, Chang, Konyak, Khiamniungan, Sangtam, Sümi and Yimkhiung. Some keepers are transhumant and move their herds in step with the sago palm harvest. Ownership is taken as a public sign of wealth and standing.

Faith and ritual

The gayal is the state animal of both Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, and it carries a sacred weight in village religion. Its meat and blood are treated as auspicious, and the animal is commonly sacrificed to honour deities, ask for blessings, or mark a turning point for a family or community. Among the Galo, who call the animal hobo in the Gallong language, it stands for peace and harmony. Naga tradition tells that people and gayal once shared the same womb, which is given as the reason for the close bond today, and carvings of gayal heads are placed on house fronts to signal the family's status.

The Gayal at fairs and festivals

During the Galo Mopin festival in April, gayal are offered to the harvest goddess Mopin Ane to ask for a good crop and a prosperous year. Gayal also turn up across Naga and Tani gatherings, where they are eaten at feasts, used in rites, and shown off as proof of a host's standing. In Adi marriages, the wedding is not regarded as fixed until the groom's family has presented one or more gayal to the bride's people, and the size and quality of the animal reflects the standing of each side.

Custom and folk tradition

Gayal ownership is a public mark of wealth and high social rank, and the animals are passed around as a kind of living currency - paid as fines, swapped for goods or alliances, and given as dowry. Among the Galo, the number of gayal a family keeps is taken as a measure of its prosperity. Naga carvings of gayal heads decorate the fronts of homes to broadcast the household's status to visitors, and the animal stands for peace, plenty and fertility in the wider community.

Keeping Gayal cattle

Traditional owners leave their animals to wander in the forest by day and let them choose when to come back. More recent practice has been to build fences, often living fences of trees, to keep gayal from straying into crops, and to bring them in at night because dhole predation on calves has grown heavier.

Related breeds and crosses

The gayal is closely tied to the wild gaur, from which its maternal line descends, and shares physical traits with that species while being smaller and more thickly built. It also carries a small share of zebu and taurine cattle DNA from past crossings, which sets it apart from pure gaur and from ordinary domestic breeds.

Numbers, conservation and the herd book

No global head count is given for the gayal, but it is the state animal of two large Indian states and is found across at least five countries, from the Chittagong Hills to the Salween basin. Its conservation relies on the work of the National Research Centre on Mithun at Medziphema in Nagaland, which is tasked with characterising the breed's germplasm, improving it for meat and milk, and keeping a national record of breeding stock.

Questions people ask about Gayal

Good reading and sources

• The indigenous community protecting Himalayan sacred cattle in IndiaBBC, Article

• Gayal on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data