STUDY OF SYSTEM AND DISTRIBUTION OF CHINESE TAKIN (Budorcas taxicolor Hodgson, 1850)
中国羚牛分类、分布的研究

The Takins are endemic to Asia. It is distributed in China, Burma, India and Bhutan. It is a rare animal in the "Red Date Book" of the "IUCN". There are two endemic subspecies (the Golden Takin and the Sichuan Takin) in China. This paper deals with the system and distribution of Takins in China. There are different points of view on which taxonomy the Takin should belong to. From north to south in the distributional region, the color of the four subspecies of Takin, changes from light to dark colour, and the body size changes from large to small. The nasal bone becomes higher as the habitat increases in altitude, because of the air radiant intensity of the sun and other factors of ecology and zoogeography. Therefore the Takin should be 1 species and 4 subspecies. After comparing the size, bone, skull, teeth and chromosomes of Caprinae, Bovinae, Antiloponae, it is concluded to be an Ox-like sheep. The Takin and Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) both belong to "Ovibovinae" based on palaeo-zoology and structural characteristics. The first fossil Budorcas was found in Pliocene layer of Yueshe, Shanxi in China, it was named as a new species-"Budorcas teilhardi" (Teilhard de Chardin & Young, 1936). And it was also found in Nihowan of Hebei Province. The subfossil was found in Anyang of Henan in the Holocene layer, it was named as a new subspecies- "Budorcas taxicolor lichii" (Young, 1948). The Takin originated from China of Asia. It is possible that it was living in the central and south-west part at early Pleistocene, and developed into various modern subspecies in Asia.