Takin live in some of the wettest mountain habitat in Asia, in bamboo and rhododendron thickets wrapped in cloud for much of the year. Their coats are long, coarse and, on close inspection, greasy.
That greasiness is produced across the general skin surface rather than from a discrete scent gland, and it works like proofing on a canvas jacket: water beads and runs off rather than soaking to the skin. The same secretion carries a pungent, bitter odour that keepers describe readily and that probably functions in communication as well as waterproofing.
Takin are often linked to the Golden Fleece of Greek myth on the strength of the golden coat of the Bhutan and Sichuan forms, but that is an appealing suggestion, not evidence. More substantively, the secretion itself has attracted little published chemical analysis, so its composition, the glands responsible, and whether it also deters insects or bacteria are largely undescribed in the literature.