Majestic Beauties: Researching the Takin

In my high school, I am in a class called Population, where we have been learning about taxonomy, sets, scientific language, and more. We have dissected a fish, made Venn diagrams, talked about categorizing, and also learned to make dichotomous keys. Our biggest field experience for this class was when we went to the zoo to observe all the animals and talk to professionals about chimpanzees! For our project, we had to research an organism we are interested in researching. At the Zoo, I noticed this gorgeous animal called the Sichuan Takin. I thought it was absolutely majestic-looking and beautiful. When we were told to pick an organism for this project, it was the perfect chance for me to learn all about the Takin.

This was my reference photo for the Takin art piece I made for this project. I decided to make it in a position like this to show the hoofs, horns, fur, etc.. The name of the animal I saw at the zoo was the Sichuan Takin or Tibetan Takin. I soon learned the different types of Takins, and the scientific name for the Takin is Budorcas Taxicolor Tibetan. (Picture from Wikipedia)

These are the physical traits of the Takin that I showed in my art piece of the Takin. I have something to show for each category of the Takins taxonomy in the piece. 

Taxonomic Level (organism categories)	Your organism’s group (Takin's groups)	Key characteristics of groups
Kingdom	Animalia (1)	Eukaryotic, multicellular, heterotrophic. Consume organic material, reproduce sexually, breathe oxygen, able to move. I want to show the Takin eating grass/plants.
Class	Mammalia (2)	Mammary glands, that in females produce milk for their young. Fur or hair, and 3 middle ear bones. The fur or hair part is what I will show on the Takin for Mammalia.
Order	Artiodactyla (3)	Even toed: Hoofed animals, which bear weight equally on 2 (an even number) of their 5 toes. I will show the Takin’s hooves.
Family	Bovidae (4)	The males and females have 2 or more flute form-shaped horns and most have 30 to 32 teeth. ​I will show the horns.
Genus	Budorcas (5)	Heavy coated Asian bovines. (only 3 species, and only one living. Takin.) I will show it is heavy coated, has short legs, and 2 horns.
Species	B. Taxicolor (6)	Large, Short legs but large 2 toed hooves, thick wool, they have an oily substance all over their bodies, Their habitat is rocky and grassy, and they eat vegetation.

Phylum

Chordata (7)

They have these at some point: notochord, dorsal hollow nerve cord, endostyle or thyroid, pharyngeal slits, and a post-anal tail. I will show the ribs of the Takin.

(Picture by NM)

For the art piece, I planned to use colored paper, cardboard, paint, and fake fur. Also, fake grass and cardboard rocks, and a flap to show the skeleton part for the family Chordata(7). The Takin is a large species of ungulate. Short legs but large 2 toed hooves, largest and most stocky subfamily caprine. They have thick wool, and it varies in color. They secrete an oily, strong-smelling substance all over their bodies to mark things like trees. Their habitat is rocky and grassy alpine zones. They eat bamboo shoots, flowers, and any vegetation that’s close to them. Salt is also an important part of their diet. They are usually found in groups of 20 individuals, but older males live more in solitary. Herds up to 300 gather high on the mountain slopes in the summer for salt licks, mating, feeding sites, and hot springs.

I will be comparing the Takin to the penguin and the pig for similarities and differences. For their similarities, they are part of the Animalia kingdom, and they live on land. Something else that they all have is they are in the Chordata category. For differences between these three animals the takin has wool, the penguin has a beak, and the pig grows tusks. In terms of what they eat, Pigs eat basically anything, Takin are vegetarian, and Penguins eat mostly fish. Something the Takin and Pig have in common is that they are both Artiodactyla. This is a Venn diagram I made for the Takin, Penguin, and Pig comparisons.

(Picture by NM)

Another interesting thing I want to show you is the mathematical/scientific language we learned. These are some mathematical/scientific sentences I wrote related to the Takin:

Set = {Cat, Dog, Lizard, Takin, Sea Otter, Rat}

Takin ∉ Lizard

Takin ∈ Animalia

Takin ∈ Budorca

Takin ∉ Omnivore

Takin ∈ Budorca ∩ Mammal

Takin ∈ Artiodactyla

When making my model of the Takin, I considered every category and made sure to incorporate all that I could. This is when I was working on making my physical art piece of the Takin. I used black paint for the details like the fur, cardboard for the shape and rocks, green pipe cleaners for the grass, and hot glue to put it together. I ended up putting grass in the Takins mouth to show they eat organic material.

(Picture by HK)

(My Takin model: pictures by NM)

I enjoyed this project very much. I got more invested in learning about the Takin than I thought I would, and I don't at all regret it. I loved making the physical model too, the whole project was very fun. I don't think I would change anything about it. I struggled a bit in figuring out how I could show that the Takin is part of the Chordata category, but I ended up doing it by showing kind of what the ribs of the Takin look like. I am pretty proud of my project even though It didn't end up exactly how thought it would, and even though a few pieces fell off a few times. Thank you for reading my blog post and I hope you liked it!