Page 28 - BHUTAN 2007

Other wildlife we were lucky enough to see were the unexpected musk deer
with its long fangs in the upper jaw—isn’t that a surprising thing? Deer with

fangs? The musk deer has a reddish coat and is about the size of the white-

tailed deer we see in our own country. But those fangs do set him off as

something pretty special. When we went to the Valley of the Black-Necked

Cranes, we saw a red fox in the dwarf bamboo forest—no black-necked
cranes however. We were too early to see them arrive since they usually

come in December. However, the fox was a wonderful substitute. He looked

just like our own red foxes.

The dwarf bamboo however was another surprise! A “forest” of this type of

bamboo looks like a tea or coffee plantation. The grasses are very short and

grow quite densely so that it is impossible to see the ground beneath the
canopy. The tufts of leaves are small, rounded and widely separated on the

stalk. An odd looking bamboo to be sure.