Show smallest of wild cattle celebes has the distinction of being the home ol 01 the smallest living depre of the wild cattle or indeed of the wild cattle of any period of the earth s history for no equally diminutive fossil member of the group appears to be known to science an idea of the extremely diminutive proportions of the anoa or hapl utan as the animal in question is respectively called by the inhabitants of celebes and the malays may be gained when it is stated that its height at the der is only three feet three inches whereas that of the great indian wild ox or gaur Is at least six feet four inches and may according to some writers reach as much as seven feet in tact the anoa Is really not much it at all larger than a well grown south down sheep and scarcely exceeds in this respect the little domesticated cattle shown a few years ago at the indian exhibition held at earl s court the anoa has many of the characteristics of the large indian buffalo but its horns are relatively shorter less curved and more upright in this as well as in certain other respects it Is more like the young than the adult of the last named species and as young animals frequently show ancestral features which are gradually lost as maturity is approached it would be a natural supposition that the anoa Is a primitive type of buffalo london knowledge |