The Species: Saola

Possibly extinct within the next ten years

Scientific name	Pseudoryx nghetinhensis
Conservation status	Endangered
Status in Vietnam	not evaluated
Endemism	Vietnam, Lao PDR

While only discovered little more than a decade ago, the charismatic saola may not survive the next decade.

In 1992, members of a team of scientists from the Ministry of Forestry of Vietnam and WWF were shown a pair of long, almost straight, horns from a large mammal while conducting a survey in central Vietnam.

Discussions with local villagers led to the discovery of two additional pairs of horns and following that, WWF announced that a new genus of large mammal had been discovered and the saola was officially described in 1993.

The long-horned bovid is known as "sao la" which means spindle horn, referring to the similarity between the animal's pointed horns and the local weaving spindles in Nghe An province.

While a member of the bovid or cow family, the saola actually looks more like a small deer. A new genus name, Pseudoryx, was proposed to reflect the animal's superficial similarity to the African and Arabian oryxes, and the specific name, nghetinhensis, was applied provisionally to reflect its origin, Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces.

A rare animal threatened by hunters
There are estimated to be between 70-1000 individual saola remaining in the northern and central Annamites, but to date, no scientist has seen a living saola in the wild. Its range is considered to be much wider than originally thought but in Quang Nam province, which is the southern border of its range, the population density of the saola is estimated to be low.

The species distribution is known from hunted specimens observed in houses, interview records and field work (camera-traps and tracks). Although newly discovered, the saola is endangered and could become extinct within the next ten years. It is threatened primarily by hunters using dogs and snares set by local hunters to catch wild boar, sambar or muntjac, which are hunted for their meat. But being non-selective, the snares also trap the saola.