On a serow from Annam
Dr. R. Hanitsch, Director of the Raffles Museum in Singapore, published this brief taxonomic note in 1918 describing a serow (Capricornis sp.) found alive off the Annamese coast in February 1917, arguing that the specimen’s skull and external characters do not fit neatly into any of the seven geographical races of C. sumatraensis previously described by Pocock, nor into Sowerby’s revised Chinese and Tonkinese species, leaving its specific identity unresolved.
Summary
The animal was discovered by native fishermen off the peninsula of Phu’ong Mai (approximately 13°30′ N) in Annam on 5 February 1917, having apparently fallen from the high coastal cliffs. It was purchased by M. Gabriel Saint-Poulof, photographed alive, and died three days later in captivity despite drinking readily but refusing all food. The skin, skeleton, photographs, and measurements were presented to the Raffles Museum by Messrs. Chochod and Saint-Poulof (p. 57).
Hanitsch situates the specimen within the broader taxonomic history of serows in South-East Asia, tracing the literature from Marsden’s 1783 description of the Sumatran “cambing ootan” through Hodgson’s 1832 account of the Nepalese form, Cantor’s 1846 record for the Malay Peninsula, and Heude’s prolific but over-inflated descriptions of Chinese and Tonkinese species, which Sowerby reduced to five valid taxa in 1917 (pp. 57–61). The Annamite specimen is a not-quite-adult male with a shaggy coat, rufous forehead, black cheeks and throat, a two-toned white-and-black mane, and rusty-brown lower legs (p. 61).
Crucially, Hanitsch’s comparative skull measurements show the Annamite form to be closest to C. s. rodoni from Chamba (Western Himalayas), yet it differs in being narrower across the premaxillae, zygoma, and posterior palate, with longer but narrower nasals and greater frontal height (p. 61). Externally, it does not match rodoni (which has a white breast) nor jamrachi from Darjiling (which has a coal-black forehead and short coat), and it lacks the creamy-white stockings of C. rocherianus from Along Bay, Tonkin, which locality would otherwise suggest (pp. 63–64).
Key Findings
- The serow was found alive off Phu’ong Mai, Annam, on 5 February 1917, having fallen from coastal cliffs; it died three days after capture despite drinking but refusing food (p. 57).
- Skull measurements (basal length 220 mm, zygomatic width 114 mm, nasal width 31 mm) place the Annamite form nearest to C. s. rodoni from Chamba, though it is narrower in several dimensions and has longer, narrower nasals (p. 63).
- The specimen’s rufous forehead, shaggy coat, and black breast distinguish it from both rodoni (white breast) and jamrachi (coal-black forehead, short coat), leaving it unassigned among Pocock’s seven races (p. 63).
- Sowerby’s 1917 revision of Heude’s collection reduces 24 described species to five valid taxa; the Annamite serow does not match C. rocherianus (creamy-white stockings) despite its proximity to Along Bay, Tonkin (pp. 60, 64).
- Local Annamite knowledge held the animal to be nocturnal, rare, and restricted to mountains; its flesh was considered edible but unlucky, and its horns were valued by Chinese apothecaries for treating nervous diseases (p. 57).
- The Raffles Museum already held a Sumatran serow from Lebong Tandai (presented 1917) and two pairs of Malayan Peninsula horns from Perak (presented 1905), providing the comparative material for this study (pp. 58, 60).
Conclusion
Hanitsch concludes that the Annamite serow cannot be confidently assigned to any known species or subspecies on the available evidence. It may belong to C. milne-edwardsi or C. vidianus based on its brown legs, as suggested by Kloss’s Siam material, but “more material and much more study will be required before this question can be settled satisfactorily” (p. 64). The paper thus serves as a provisional record of a geographically significant specimen that highlights the incomplete state of serow taxonomy in Indochina at the time.
Context
- The Raffles Museum, Singapore, functioned as the principal natural history repository for the Straits Settlements and received specimens from across the Malay world and Indochina, making it a natural venue for comparative zoological work of this kind.
- The article reflects the broader colonial-era pattern in which European administrators and missionaries in French Indochina collected and forwarded natural history specimens to British institutional repositories, with taxonomic authority remaining largely in London-based hands (Pocock, Sowerby).