| Serow[1] | |
|---|---|
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| Mainland Serow Capricornis sumatraensis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Caprinae |
| Genus: | Capricornis Ogilby, 1836 |
| Species | |
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Capricornis crispus |
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The serows are six species of medium-sized goat-like or antelope-like mammals of the genus Capricornis.
All six species of serow were until recently also classified under Naemorhedus, which now only contains the gorals. They live in central or eastern Asia.
Like their smaller relatives the gorals, serows are often found grazing on rocky hills, though typically at a lower elevation when the two types of animal share territory. Serows are the slower and less agile than members of the genus Nemorhaedus, but they are nevertheless able to climb slopes to escape predation or to take shelter during cold winters or hot summers. Serows, unlike gorals, make use of their pre-orbital glands in scent marking.
Coloration varies by species, region, and individual. Both sexes have beards and small horns which are often shorter than their ears.
Fossils of serow-like animals date as far back as the late Pliocene, two to seven million years ago. The other members of the Caprinae family may have evolved from these creatures.
SEROW, or SARAU, the Himalayan name of a goat-like antelope of the size of a donkey, nearly allied to the goral ( q .v.) of the same region, but considerably larger, and with small face-glands. The Himalayan animal is a local race of the Sumatran Nemorhaedus sumatrensis; and the name serow is now extended to embrace all the species belonging to the same genus, the range of which extends from the Himalaya to Burma, the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra in one direction, and to Tibet, China, Japan and Formosa in another. Serows inhabit scrub-clad mountains, at no great elevation. (R. L.*)
Categories: SEE-SER
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