These large animals stand fairly tall and stout, with a body type similar to that of a cow. Long, upward-curved horns and long, thick tails garnish their bodies. The tails start off solid and then transition into actual hair about halfway down. The ones I saw wore thick, yak-like blueish white or black fur. While doing some research, though, I saw pictures of brown ones, too. From what I understand, many different breeds of hill cattle exist that might give a variety of crossbreeds.
At first, I jumped into action with my camera in excitement. My family had told me I would have to hike five hours uphill if I wanted to see them. Despite this, the jhopkya often work as porter animals, and I happened to catch them passing by. I started hurrying over to inspect them, but my friend quickly slowed me down and warned me not to get too close. Apparently they might have swung their huge horns at me if I got too close. After the warning I felt a bit nervous, but my intrigue drove me a bit closer. The long tails swinging about at the flies and the crooked horns on one of them particularly caught my attention.
These chauri gai live high in the Himalayan mountains, between 2,000-5,000 meters above sea level throughout the year, but most of them stay on the higher end of the altitude range. From what I’ve gathered, these animals only reside in Tibet and Nepal.
