Rare Gaur, a 1-Ton Wild Cow, Captured After Injuring Three Villagers

Residents of Oddar Meanchey’s Kokmon commune had never seen the animal before, commune chief Sung Bun Ngam said. Thinking it was a buffalo, three local residents tried to kick the bovine out of their farms, Bun Ngam said.

But the animal, a wild gaur, instead charged the residents, ramming into them and sending them to hospital on Wednesday. Gaur are extremely rare, according to the International Union of the Conservation of Nature, with estimates of their numbers in the wild reaching as low as just 6,000. Still, their powerful bodies can make them a very real, though unusual, hazard to humans that cross their path.

“In the absence of a tiger, the gaur is perhaps the most dangerous animal in the forest,” said Nick Marx, Wildlife Alliance’s director of rescue and care, on Friday. The villagers in Banteay Ampil district injured on Wednesday were Yun Voeur, 65, who suffered an injury to his right thigh; his wife Snea Neav, 55, who hurt her right arm; and Tik Kreng, 31, who injured his right knee.

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