The massively-built animal was seen roaming around normally in the Dong Nai nature and culture conservation area one day before it was found dead, the province's forest management agency said on Tuesday.
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| Officers examine the dead gaur at a sanctuary in Dong Nai Province. |
The massively-built animal was seen roaming around normally in the Dong Nai nature and culture conservation area one day before it was found dead, the province’s forest management agency said on Tuesday.
The male gaur was around ten years old and weighed some 800kg, according to forest management officers.
The animal’s body was almost intact, except for two cuts on the surface of its right shoulder and a wound in the abdomen, said Le Viet Dung, deputy head of the forest management agency.
Forest management officers are still investigating the cause of the death and have not given any further details.
The gaur’s internal organs have been taken for an autopsy.
On February 28, forest protection officers also discovered a dead female gaur when they were on a patrol at the nature sanctuary.
The 200kg animal was fatally shot, with two legs and part of its body butchered and the internal organs already decomposing.
The gaur, also called Indian bison, is the largest extant bovine, native to South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The species has been listed as vulnerable on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List since 1986, as the population decline in parts of the species' range is likely to be well over 70 percent during the last three generations.
(Souce:TTNews)
