The world's rarest animal has only a few individuals left in Vietnam.
Survey results in many conservation areas and national parks where Sao La were recorded show that there are only about 1 - 10 individuals left in Vietnam and Laos, the only habitat of the animal known as the Asian unicorn.
On March 28, the signing ceremony between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the International Union for Conservation of Nature on building a Sao La conservation and breeding program took place.
According to scientists, Sao La are so rare that almost no biologist has ever directly encountered them in the wild. All images are captured through a technological tracking system.
Since their discovery in 1992, only about 10 Saola have been captured, all by local people in Laos and Vietnam. Due to a lack of experts and specialized care, the longest a Saola has survived after capture is a few months. The last Saola was captured in 2010 in a Lao village and died within a week. In Vietnam, the last Saola was captured in 1998, 21 years ago.
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| Since its discovery in 1992, only about 10 Sao La individuals have been captured, |
Biologists have only captured camera trap images of the species in the wild five times since its discovery 25 years ago. The most recent image of the Saola, captured by a camera trap set up by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), was in 2013 in a Saola reserve in central Vietnam. It was the first image of the species in 15 years. Saola are difficult to find, living in dense forests, in remote and inaccessible places. Because of their mystery, Saola has been nicknamed the “Unicorn” of Asia.
According to the Sao La conservation working group, survey results in many conservation areas in Vietnam such as Pu Huong (Nghe An), Hue, Quang Nam, Pu Mat National Park show that the remaining Sao La population in the wild is extremely small, with only about 1-10 individuals remaining. For example, in the Sao La Nature Reserve in Hue and Quang Nam, conservationists used camera traps in 707 locations with 74,177 nights but only captured one Sao La photo in 2013.
The signing ceremony between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the IUCN on the development of a Saola conservation breeding program this morning is an international and Vietnamese effort in the hope of finding and restoring the world's rarest animal. Conservationists have developed a plan that includes searching for the remaining Saola individuals through an intensive field research program in Vietnam and Laos.
In case Sao La individuals are discovered, they will be preserved in situ. A Bach Ma captive breeding conservation center will be built for direct conservation. Then, Sao La and large-antlered muntjac individuals (if found) will be captured and brought here for conservation and care. The final step is to improve the natural environment so that they can be released back into the wild.
