[1] The current consensus recognises the following four species, with milneedwardsii and thar demoted to subspecies of C. sumatraensis:[2] Serows live in south-central, southeast and eastern Asia.

However, the different species are not particularly sexually dimorphic, as both males and females have beards and small horns (which are often shorter than their ears).

Like their smaller relatives, the gorals, serows are often found grazing on rocky and forested hillsides, though typically at a lower elevation in places where the two species' territories overlap; gorals tend to be wary and typically retreat to higher elevations and steeper mountainsides.

Serows are slightly larger and slower-moving, and somewhat less agile, than gorals; however, they can still nimbly climb up or down the slopes to escape predation or to find appropriate shelter during cold winters or hot summers.

Fossils of serow-like animals date as far back as the late Pliocene, two to seven million years ago.