VietNamNet Bridge – The images of saola, the endangered species, have been recently recorded in the central province of Quang Nam, 15 years since the last time this species was seen in Vietnam.

The image of a saola is recorded through the camera in a remote area of the Truong Son mountain range. Photo: WWF.

The images of a saola were recently recorded by cameras of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Forest Protection Department of Quang Nam Province--installed in a remote area of the Truong Son Mountains. In the photos, a saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) was moving along a stream in a small valley on September 7.

The AP quoted Dr. Van Ngoc Thinh, director of WWF Vietnam, as saying that this is an incredible discovery which brings hope to recover this endangered animal species in Vietnam.

"The first time looking at the photos, we could not believe in our eyes. Saola are considered by the Southeast Asian conservationists as a 'treasure,' so we are extremely happy," he said.

Saola is the new animal species discovered by scientists of the Vietnam Ministry of Forestry (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) and the WWF when they conducted studies in the Vu Quang National Park in Ha Tinh province, located near the border of Vietnam and Laos in 1992.

According to the WWF, the discovery of saola is the first discovery of a species of a large mammal in the world in over the past 50 years.

In 1993, two saola were found but they died in cages a few months later. In Vietnam, the last time an individual saola was seen in the wild was in 1998.

The Saola, Vu Quang ox or Asian unicorn, also, infrequently, Vu Quang bovid (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), is one of the world's rarest mammals, a forest-dwelling bovine found only in the Truong Son Range of Vietnam and Laos. Cousin to the cow, goat, and antelope, only several dozen individual saola can be found in the thick forests along the border of Vietnam – Laos, according to experts.

S. Tung