What’s the most dangerous animal in China? The internet tells me it’s the Chinese cobra, but my own rather hair-raising research suggests that it is a seldom seen and poorly known species known as the takin, says Jonathan Eames.
It all started in the Qinling Mountains in the north-west of the country, where I was a member of a small group on the trail of the giant panda. I’d been told that March was the best month to visit because it was mating season, so there was a chance that we’d see groups of males chasing terrified females up and down trees.
The truth was somewhat different. The pandas were on the ridge tops, which meant steep, tedious climbs in waist-deep snow, and the closest we came to one was seeing bamboo quiver 70m away. Frustrated and disappointed, we left the area.
Wanting to salvage something from the trip, I suggested to my companions that we try to photograph a takin, a member of the goat-antelope family that resembles a cross between a musk ox and a wild goat.
- "I was once charged – fortunately, I could run faster than the photographer I was with..."
- It lived alongside mammoths, survived the Ice Age, weighs the same as a tiger – and has a top speed of a whopping 60KPH – Don't get in its way!
Takins graze in alpine meadows during the summer, taking to dense forest for much of the rest of the year. There are four subspecies, and I was keen to see the fairest of them all: the ‘golden takin of Shaanxi’ rumoured to be the basis of the legend of the Golden Fleece.
Much to our surprise, we pulled up in the location we had identified and there – standing majestically in a meadow – was a honey-blond, male takin. I frantically disembarked a still-parking minibus and began to stalk the animal, expecting him to shy away out of sight at any moment.
I clambered through the woods and over the stream, taking photos as I went. Soon I was just 100m away, then 70m, then 50m and closing. The memory card was filling up fast.
The takin was ambling away vaguely when he stopped, looked at me, snorted – and charged. Some 350kg of mutton accelerated rapidly down the slope. I turned and ran, dropping my camera, before I was unceremoniously catapulted by the irate beast and somersaulted through the air.
Luckily a pile of brushwood cushioned my fall. However, the takin was just getting started. He came at me a second time while I was on my back, but I managed to fend him off and to stroke those golden locks in the process – the hair was in no need of conditioner. I grabbed his left horn with one hand, while nifty footwork kept him at bay.
Meanwhile one of my friends had arrived and tried to shoo the animal away. Eventually, as abruptly as he had attacked, the takin took off up the hill, still snorting angrily. I returned to the minibus and reassured our sobbing guide that I wasn’t going to tell his boss, then checked the species’ entry in my field guide.
“Surprised at close range, they can charge humans, and some hunters have been killed,” it said. I’d had a lucky escape.
- "Suddenly, I feel vulnerable. Darwin doesn’t look very pleased and he is pumped full of sex hormones: he is not an elephant you want to upset"
- “Lifted her enormous foot.” Herd of elephants stomps towards photographer's camera in Kenya, then this happens
Jonathan Eames is CEO of Rising Phoenix Co. Ltd. a social enterprise that manages Siem Pang Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia. he was formerly an adviser to BirdLife International and has spent over 25 years working in South-East Asia, mainly in Cambodia and Vietnam
