One of the Earth’s rarest creatures, known as the ‘Asian unicorn’, has been spotted in a forest in Vietnam’s central Annamite mountains.
The critically endangered twin-horned antelope-like saola was photographed by a camera trap hidden in the trees foliage and it is the first time that the horned creature has been spotted in the country for 15 years.
Conservation group WWF had released the image of the long-horned ox today and in a statement, Van Ngoc Thinh, WWF’s Vietnam director said, “When our team first looked at the photos we couldn’t believe our eyes. Saola are the holy grail for South East Asian conservationists so there was a lot of excitement. This is a breathtaking discovery and renews hope for the recovery of the species.”
The animal was last discovered in remote mountains near Laos in year 1992 by WWF and Vietnam’s forest control agency.
Despite the nickname ‘Asian unicorn’, the animal in fact has two parallel horns with sharp ends that could reach 50 centimetres in length. The discovery also proved to be the first large mammal new to science in more than 50 years.
