Khting-vor
| Kting voar | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Bovinae |
| Genus: | Pseudonovibos |
| Species: | P. spiralis |
| Binomial name | |
|
Pseudonovibos spiralis Peter and Feiler, 1994 |
|
The kting voar, also known as the khting vor, linh dương, or snake-eating cow (Pseudonovibos spiralis) is a bovid mammal reputed to exist in Cambodia and Vietnam.
The kting voar is normally described as a cow-like animal with peculiar twisting horns about 45 centimetres (20 inches) long and spotted fur. It often has some sort of connection with snakes, varying between stories.
Kting voar is the animal's Cambodian name. This was erroneously translated in the West as 'jungle sheep', leading to a mistaken assumption that the animal was related to sheep and goats.
Adding to the confusion, the Vietnamese name linh dương meaning ('antelope') or ('gnu') was once reported to refer to this animal. However, this is in fact a local name of the mainland serow.
Other Kampuchean names possibly include kting sipuoh ('snake-eating cattle') and khting pôs. The Latinized binomial "Pseudonovibos spiralis" is invalid, given that the holotype for the species was identified as a domesticated cow. However, the name would mean c.f. 'fake new cattle' with 'spiral' horns.
For Western scientists, the first evidence supporting the kting voar's existence was a set of horns found by biologist Wolfgang Peter in a Ho Chi Minh City market (Peter & Feiler, 1994a). The horns were so unusual that Peter believed them to belong to a new species (Peter & Feiler, 1994b).
No anatomical information, except for horns and frontlets, is available, so the phylogenetic status of the kting voar has been uncertain. Peter & Feiler (1994a) proposed the relationships of P. spiralis with Antilopini, but morphological analyses by Dioli (1995, 1997) and Timm & Brandt (2001) suggest affinities within Bovini, while Nadler (1997) believed P. spiralis to be related to Caprini. Genetic studies using alleged kting voar specimens have produced confusing results (Hammer et al., 1999; Kuznetsov et al., 2001a,b, 2002). However, these results from DNA have been demonstrated to be cases of DNA contamination (Hassanin & Douzery, 2000; Hassanin, 2002; Olson & Hassanin, 2003).
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