A large wild cattle species of forests and hills in India and Southeast Asia.
Both sexes have yellowish horns with black tips. A large muscular rise extends from the shoulders along the back, and loose skin hangs beneath the neck.
In Parsa National Park, Nepal, cameras at 67 sites ran from December 2022 to March 2023, producing 54 gaur detections over 1,407 trap nights. The single-season model estimated mean occupancy at 0.308 and detection probability at 0.400. In that model, recorded human numbers, tiger presence, and sambar presence had no significant association with occupancy.
Higher estimated occupancy occurred in the park’s flat south-central plains, where grassland and forest were mixed. The model associated occupancy positively with distance from permanent water and negatively with forest area and elephant presence; detection probability was lower in the east and west. Across sites, the nearest permanent water averaged 3.53 km away and mean forest area was 0.733 km².
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
A winter camera study in Parsa National Park estimated higher gaur occupancy in flat grassland–forest mosaics and at sites farther from permanent water. Habitat monitoring should account for vegetation mix and season rather than distance to water alone. This is a short study in one park, not a global category, assessment date, or species-wide trend.