Last Chance to Save the Saola

One of the world's rarest animals is facing extinction

Stretching for 700 miles (1100 km) between the Mekong River basin and Vietnam's sliver of coastal plain along the South China Sea, and running through Laos and northeast Cambodia, the Annamite Cordillera is a mountain range known for its twisting scenic road to Xam Tai, one of Laos' most picturesque travel routes.

The Annamites are also the home of one of the world's rarest creatures: the enigmatic antelope-like saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), also known as the Vu Quang ox.

Discovered in 1992 by a team of scientists from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry, the saola is the first large mammal discovered since 1936.

Only 11 saola have been recorded alive. It is rarely seen or photographed. And because of illegal poaching, this mysterious animal is now facing extinction, according to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"The animal's prominent white facial markings and long tapering horns lend it a singular beauty, and its reclusive habits in the wet forests of the Annamites an air of mystery," says Barney Long of the IUCN Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group.

"None is held in any zoo, anywhere in the world. Its wild population may number only in the dozens, certainly not more than a few hundred."

GET INVOLVED

• Support the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Countdown 2010 to save the world's biodiversity
• Support the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
  
• Sign a petition to the United Nations to show your support of biodiversity

RELATED POSTS

• Exit the Mangrove Dwellers (August 25, 2009)
• Atlantic Salmon Dying in Chile's Pacific (August 4, 2009)
• Extinction Crisis in Oceania (August 3, 2009)
• Exclusive Interview with Francois Hugo, Founder, Seal Alert-SA (July 15, 2009)
• Note to Obama: Protect Endangered Seals (June 15, 2009)
• Slip Slidin' Away (June 9, 2009)
• The End of An Odyssey Draws Near (May 25, 2009)
• Dying for Daggers: Zimbabwe's Black Rhinos (May 20, 2009)
• Enter the Dead Zone (April 20, 2009)
• From Snakes on a Boat to Guam's Silent Forests (February 7, 2009)
• The Sixth Extinction (October 10, 2008)

image: Care2