Gaur Profile
The jungles of South and Southeast Asia are home to many giant and fearsome beasts. The Asian elephants, tigers, and rhinoceros, to name a few. But sharing their habitats is a herbivore that’s woefully under-represented in Western popular culture.
Behind blue eyes and a set of formidable horns, stands the largest cow on Earth: The Gaur.
Gaur Facts Overview
| Habitat: | Forests, hilly terrain, Savanna, Shrubland, Grassland |
| Location: | South and Southeast Asia |
| Lifespan: | Up to 30 years |
| Size: | 3.3m (10’ 10”) long, 2.2m (7.2ft) tall |
| Weight: | Up to 1,500kg (3,307) |
| Colour: | Brown to black |
| Diet: | Grass, bamboo, herbs, leaves, fruits |
| Predators: | Tigers, crocodiles, leopards, dholes, humans |
| Top Speed: | Unknown |
| No. of Species: | 1 |
| Conservation Status: | Vulnerable |
The Gaur is far from ignored among cultures that share their range. Throughout history, humans have found it impossible to domesticate, and it is sanctified like the zebu in Hinduism.
In modern times, these enormous cows show us the importance of large herbivores to our global ecosystems.
Despite their intimidating presence, these are naturally shy and elusive animals, and unless threatened, they almost always avoid people.
Interesting Gaur Facts
1. They’re enormous
The gaur is definitely unfairly ignored in Western culture. This is an animal whose size reminds us of a time before human pressure and post-Pleistocene climate change decimated giant herbivores.
The Pleistocene extinction lead to 80% losses of herbivorous megafauna and 20% in apex predators. Continued human expansion has, and continues to, whittle away further at this figure since then.
The gaur is not the largest bovine to have ever lived, but it’s not far off. This is a 1500kg monster, as big as a local rhino, with aggression to match.
To put this in perspective, a standard dairy cow weighs around 600kg to 900kg. The extinct Aurochs may have topped one tonne, and the largest cow ever known, Bison latifrons may have reached 2000kg.
So the guar, at ¾ this mass, is an imposing force for any animal around. And in some cases, their vehicles.
But animals only get big for a good reason, and in the case of the gaur, this reason was one of the most frightening cats to ever exist. 1
2. They evolved to fight tigers
Gaurs and tigers have a complicated relationship. These huge, muscular herbivores make a significant meal for a hungry cat, but they’re by no means easy to eat.
Being top of the menu for a tiger puts a certain evolutionary pressure on an animal to shape up, and the Gaur responded with heavy weaponry.
Their sharp horns, huge bulk and surprising speed give them lethal power against predators of all sizes and are more than capable of intimidating even other giants like rhinos and rival males.
Their huge size makes them a worthy opponent for a tiger, and they often have to prove this. 2
3. And they’re very good at it
There aren’t many animals that will take down a gaur. Leopards, packs of dhole and even the appropriately-named mugger crocodiles will try their luck against a juvenile, but they’ll likely be faced with more than an angry mother in return.
Only tigers and salties have been documented facing off against an adult, but for these animals, success is by no means guaranteed. In fact, tigers are commonly killed by adult gaurs – some say more often than the reverse – and successful kills on youngsters are hard to accomplish too.
When threatened, herds of gaur will sometimes form a defensive phalanx, driving the predators back. 3
4. They’re matriarchal
Typically, these herds are made up of females and juvenile males. This is a common strategy for large herbivores as the adult males are more or less insufferable on account of their rampaging testosterone.
But more than this, it’s important for families to spread their genes, and with male gaurs being up to 50% heavier than females, they stand a better chance of going it alone.
Matriarchs will lead the herd, ranging from 12 to around 30 individuals on average, though a large group might have more than 50 individuals in it.
Males tend to be more nomadic and roam around looking for females.
5. They’re ecosystem engineers
Huge swathes of these animals once spanned much of Asia, and while their habitats are now tragically fragmented and reduced, large herbivore communities such as these have a significant impact on their environments.
Like the elephants, gaurs graze and browse on a range of plants – more so than any other ungulate species in India. One survey reported 32 species of plant commonly munched on by this species, including flowers, herbs, grasses, and even tree bark.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the gaur spends much of its day eating, and resting during the hottest hours of the day.
All this feeding has an impact on the ecosystem. What goes in must come out, and gaur poo serves to spread seeds and fertilise the soil.
Further, herbivory keeps plant ecosystems in check, both in terms of abundance and competition, and many species will be entirely reliant on the large cows reducing their competitors’ chances.
Understanding the mineral composition of the gaur’s diet is essential in their conservation, and much of this must be done in the field, as they can be hard to care for in captivity. 4
6. They get stressed in zoos
In one park in India, gaurs were assessed to determine how visitor presence affected their behaviours. On days when visitors were present, the herd showed higher levels of aggression toward one another and moved around more.
This suggests a level of discomfort and heightened stress in what is essentially an untamable mega beast and emphasizes the need for in-situ monitoring to further their conservation.
And this is particularly important because the species as a whole is in decline.
7. They’re vulnerable
Hunting is still a widespread destructive force on the species, but habitat loss compounds this significantly. In areas where this shy animal cannot retreat, it’s exploited for its horns, meat and organs.
Conversion of its feeding grounds into arable land reduces its grazing space, and even protected areas are stricken by a lack of funding and support, both on the local government and international levels.
One lesser-known effect of habitat reduction is the effect of compression: populations of animals become forced into close quarters with one another, resulting in artificially over-populated areas, dense in animal life, but above the habitat’s natural carrying capacity.
This crowding increases the spread of diseases, and with domestic cattle encroaching on their space, gaurs are suffering from viruses like foot and mouth and rinderpest.
In order to protect the remaining populations, wildlife reserves need to be created and maintained and forested corridors between habitats need to be designed to allow the animals passage between otherwise isolated regions. 5
8. Reintroductions might help
It’s a bit early to tell, but it looks as though transplanting and reintroducing gaurs could be an effective strategy for maintaining the health of populations in India.
Sanjay Tiger Reserve in India received 28 of these animals recently, including a 1200kg bull, and more operations like this are planned.
This must have been just as frightening for the conservationists as it was for the poor cows, though perhaps the cows would have preferred a better place to be dropped off than a park designed to protect their only major predator.
Still, tigers and gaurs are part of the natural ecosystem there, and their success will lead to future advancements in the conservation of this majestic animal.
Gaur Fact-File Summary
Scientific Classification
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artyodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Genus: | Bos |
| Species: | gaurus |
Fact Sources & References
- Nature And Heritage (2022), “Horrifying! Gaur/Indian Bison Knocks Auto rickshaw With its Head.”, YouTube.
- kd wild vlogs (2022), “Almost dead 🥺 | Gaur full fight I Indian Bison in Valparai, Tamilnadu”, YouTube.
- (2021), “Indian Gaur Gores Tigress To Death In A Fight At Bandipur”, Star of Mysore.
- Tharmalingam Ramesh (2022), “Drivers of human-megaherbivore interactions in the Eastern and Western Ghats of southern India”, Science Direct.
- “Gaur”, IUCN Red List.