Gaur - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

In his first description of 1804, Aylmer Bourke Lambert applied the binomial Bos frontalis to a domestic specimen probably from Chittagong. In 1827, Charles Hamilton Smith applied the binomial Bos gaurus to the wild species occurring near Mainpat in the Sarguja Tributary States of India. Later authors subordinated the species under either Bos or Bibos.

In 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has 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 gaurus for the wild species as valid for the taxon.

Traditionally, three subspecies of Bos gaurus have been recognized:

• B. g. gaurus described by Smith in 1827 from central India; ranging to Nepal and Bhutan;
• B. g. readei described by Lydekker in 1903 from the hill forests of Upper Burma as ranging to Tenasserim;
• B. g. hubbacki described by Lydekker in 1907 from Pahang as ranging in peninsular Malaysia and probably northward to Tenasserim.

This classification, based largely on differences in coloration and size, is no longer widely recognized.

In recognition of phenotypic differences between Indian and Southeast Asian specimens, the trinominals Bos gaurus gaurus and Bos gaurus laosiensis are provisionally accepted pending further morphometric and genetic study.