Males can reach 1000 pounds with females attaining weights around 600 lbs. In the
higher mountains where the takin lives, he had been a food source for humans in the
distant past, but killing them is now forbidden and that ban is easily upheld because of his
association with Lama Kunley. There are very few left, however, because of habitat loss and
changing climate. The government is taking steps to breed them in captivity for later re-
introduction into their natural habitats. That program is what allowed us to see the
creatures up close when we visited one of the government compounds where they
are being raised. Other wildlife we were lucky enough to see were the unexpected
musk deer with its long fangs in the upper jaw—isn’t that a surprising thing? Deer with
fangs? The musk deer has a reddish coat and is about the size of the white-tailed deer
we see in our own country. But those fangs do set him off as something pretty special.
When we went to the Valley of the Black-Necked Cranes, we saw a red fox in the dwarf
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