Gayal

The gayal (Bos frontalis), also known as mithun in Myanmar, is a large domestic bovine distributed in Northeast India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and in Yunnan, China. In his first description of 1804, Aylmer Bourke Lambert applied the binomial Bos frontalis to a domestic specimen probably from Chittagong. In 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature fixed the first available specific name based on a wild population that the name for this wild species is valid by virtue of its being antedated by a name based on a domestic form. Most authors have adopted the binomial Bos frontalis for the domestic species as valid for the taxon. Phylogenetic analysis corroborates the taxonomic assessment that the gayal is an independent Bos species originating matrilineally from gaur, zebu and cattle. The gayal differs in several important particulars from the gaur: Some domesticated gayals are parti-coloured, while others are completely white.