A grown male gaur can weigh 1,000 kilograms - the same as a small car. It can stand 2 metres tall at the shoulder. Despite that, it is surprisingly graceful: it slips quietly through the forest and is hard to see even when it is close. People who have walked Myanmar's forests for years say they often hear a gaur before they see it.
The white lower legs are one of the gaur's most striking features. From a distance they look like long white socks. Nobody is quite sure why they evolved this way - it might help young gaur follow their mum through dim forest, or it might confuse a predator about where the strong leg muscle ends.
Gaur live in small family groups led by the oldest female. They eat grass, leaves and bamboo shoots, and they can travel several kilometres a day looking for the best feeding ground. They drink at the same forest pools their grandparents drank at, year after year.
Even though they are huge and look fierce, gaur are gentle and shy with humans. The bigger danger is the other way round - their forests are getting smaller. Myanmar's wide protected forests are one of the most important places left in the world for gaur.
