(VOVWORLD) - Authorities of
Quang Binh are embarking on activities to save
Saola, one of the rarest and most threatened mammals on the planet, from the brink of extinction.
 A saola seen in Thua Thien-Hue province in central Vietnam in around 1998. (Photo courtesy of WWF-Vietnam) |
The activities are part of the central province’s project on sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation.
The Saola inhabits the Truong Son mountain range in Vietnam and Laos.
Found by scientists in 1992, Saola is critically endangered and is listed in the Red List of Threatened Species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Red Data Book of Vietnam.
The project will provide urgent and direct support to identify and mitigate threats to the species within priority areas in the central Truong Son region while raising public awareness to increase the ability to detect the presence of Saola within its habitat range.
The Saola population has been very small since its discovery. The species is distributed thinly, scatteredly, and Saola mainly inhabits the upstream rocky areas at an altitude of over 200 to 600 meters. It is also impossible to determine how many individuals are left. Conservation of the typically shy, deer-like species is extremely difficult.