A woodland creature that has not been seen in 30 years and thought lost to science has been photographed in the wild for the first time.
The silver-backed chevrotain, also called the Vietnamese mouse-deer, was last recorded in the 1990s. The animal, a deer-like species that is the size of a rabbit, has been hanging on in a region of southern Vietnam ravaged by poaching.
“The rediscovery of the silver-backed chevrotain provides big hope for the conservation of biodiversity, especially threatened species, in Vietnam,” said Hoang Minh Duc, head of the Southern Institute of Ecology’s Department of Zoology in a release.
The Global Wildlife Conservation, the Southern Institute of Ecology and Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research reported the finding Monday in scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. They hope the rediscovery will help protect the animal.
The chevrotain was on the GWC’s list of top 25 most wanted lost species.
According to the GWC, despite their nickname, chevrotains are neither mice nor deer, but the world’s smallest ungulates (hoofed mammals).
The shy and solitary animal, appears to walk on the tips of their hooves and have two tiny fangs. Chevrotains typically weigh less than 10 pounds.
After interviews with local people in 2017, a field team set up set three camera traps for five months in an area of southern Vietnam. They captured 275 photos of the animal. The team then set up another 29 cameras in the same area, this time recording 1,881 photographs of the chevrotain.
The researchers did not know if the animal was extinct, but they didn’t know where to find it, according to The New York Times.
