Takin: Bhutan’s National Animal

Of all the animals a country could choose to represent itself, Bhutan picked one of the strangest-looking creatures in the Himalayas — a stocky, goat-antelope hybrid with the body of a small bison, the face of a moose, and legs that seem borrowed from a completely different animal. Meet the takin, Bhutan’s official national animal, and the star of a very short, very worthwhile stop just outside Thimphu.

An Animal Built from a Myth

The takin (Budorcas taxicolor) looks so improbable that Bhutanese legend actually explains its shape with a story. According to folklore, the 15th-century saint and “Divine Madman” Drukpa Kunley — famous across Bhutan for his unconventional teaching methods — was asked by onlookers to perform a miracle. He requested a whole cow and a whole goat to eat, then, after finishing both meals, stuck the goat’s head onto the cow’s skeleton and, with a snap of his fingers, brought the strange new creature to life. That animal, so the story goes, wandered off to graze in the mountains and became the takin.

Setting myth aside, the takin is a genuine biological curiosity: a large, muscular grazer related to both goats and antelope, found only in the Eastern Himalayas across Bhutan, parts of India, Nepal, Myanmar, and China. It lives at high altitude in dense, remote forest and scrubland, which makes it notoriously difficult to spot in the wild — most travelers, and even many Bhutanese, will only ever see one in captivity.

Where to See One

The easiest place to see a takin up close is the Royal Takin Preserve, just outside Thimphu. Originally established as a mini-zoo, it was converted into a preserve after the country’s Fourth King decided it was inappropriate for Bhutan, with its strong Buddhist values around animal welfare, to keep animals caged for display. Rather than release the resident takins into the wild — where they’d likely wander into human settlements in search of food, given their habituation to people — the enclosure was expanded into a large, forested preserve where they roam a much more natural, spacious environment.

It’s a low-key visit: a short walk along a fenced forest path, with takins (and often a few other animals) grazing at a comfortable distance, more of a nature walk than a formal zoo experience.

Planning Your Visit

• Getting there: About a 15-minute drive from central Thimphu, easily combined with a visit to Buddha Dordenma on the same trip, given the short distance between them.
• Best time to visit: Late morning or afternoon, when the animals tend to be more active and visible along the forest paths.
• What to expect: A brief, easy walk of 20–30 minutes; there’s no strict schedule, so it works well as a quick add-on to a fuller day.
• Combine it with: Buddha Dordenma and central Thimphu sights, since the preserve sits conveniently between the two.

The takin might be the least photogenic thing on Bhutan’s itinerary in the traditional sense — nobody’s postcard features it — but it’s exactly the kind of offbeat, slightly absurd stop that ends up being one of the most memorable, precisely because nothing about it looks like it should be real.