Japan is home to a host of unique wildlife, from its hot-springs loving monkeys to its adorable wild cats. But one of the most interesting looking animal that calls Japan home is the Japanese serow, a sort of deer-goat hybrid that lives in forested areas on mountains.
Given Japan’s good snow, popularity for skiing, and number of ski areas spread across the country, it’s not all that surprising to see a video of a snowboarder coming across one of these animals while on the mountain. But it is certainly a cool and rare experience.
The Japanese serow is the prefectural animal of Nagano, living only on three of Japan’s four major islands. This includes Honshu (the main island of Japan), Kyushu, and Shikoku. They do not live on Japan’s northernmost island, Hokkaido.
They typically have horns that range on average from 12 to 16 centimeters in length, and their body’s are usually around 51 inches in length. An adult typically weighs between 65 and 100 pounds, and they aren’t strongly sexually dimorphic.