Thua Thien-Hue (VNA) - The Bach MaNational Park has been selected as the site for the world’s only breedingcentre for the saola, the extremely elusive forest-dwelling bovine only foundin the forests of Vietnam and Laos.

The sao la is a critically endangeredcreature that was the eighth new large mammal species to be discovered in the20th century.

The selection of the park in the centralprovince of Thua Thien-Hue as the breeding site was made by the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in technical partnership with theSaola Working Group.

The centre is scheduled to be built by theend of this year or early next year, according to the World Wide Fund forNature (WWF).

Information about the breeding centre wasreleased on the occasion of the second World Saola Day, observed on July 9every year.

A WWF statement said the centre “marks arenewed sense of hope and urgency for an international partnership to developthe first-ever conservation breeding programme for the saola, an antelope-likemammal so rare that no biologist has ever seen it in the wild.”

Also known as the Vu Quang ox, spindlehorn,or Asian bicorn (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), the saola is one of the world’srarest large mammals found only in the Trường Sơn Mountain Range of Vietnam andLaos.

Although the partnership, coordinated bythe Saola Working Group (SWG), has made significant advances in the protectionof saola habitat in the Annamite mountain range on the border of Vietnam andLaos, commercial poaching remains rampant, leaving the saola teetering on theedge of extinction.

“Time is running out for the saola,” saidWilliam Robichaud, co-ordinator of the Saola Working Group with theInternational Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species SurvivalCommission (SSC).

“A conservation breeding programme for aspecies as elusive as the saola certainly faces challenges, but inaction nowposes an even greater risk to the survival of this remarkable animal. With thesupport and expertise of some of the world’s premier field conservationorganisations, leading conservation-oriented zoos, and governments of bothrange countries, we are well-positioned to make a difference before it’s toolate.”

Before bringing animals into the centre,however, the team will need to find them.

Since the species’ astounding discovery in1992, only about 10 saola have ever been captured alive, all caught by localvillagers in Laos and Vietnam. Without professional veterinary and husbandrycare, the longest that any of the animals lived was a few months. The lastsaola known to be captured alive was in 2010 in a village in Laos. It died inless than a week.

Biologists have also only photographed thespecies five times in the wild since its discovery 25 years ago, all by cameratraps — twice in Laos and three times in Vietnam.

The most recent camera trap photos weretaken in 2013, when a WWF camera trap caught images of an animal in a saolanature reserve in central Vietnam. It was the first photo of a saola in thewild in more than 15 years.

Saola are difficult to detect because oftheir elusiveness, which gives them the nickname Asian ‘unicorn,’ and becausethey live in dense forest in remote and difficult terrain.

“We are in a race against the clock to savethe saola and it will take an all-out effort to ensure their survival—throughcaptive breeding and increased enforcement efforts against poaching, wildlifetrade and habitat destruction," said Văn Thịnh Ngọc, country director,WWF-Vietnam.

"The few confirmed sightings of saolaare a testament to the dedicated and tireless efforts of the forest guards. Wehope one day that these guards will be rewarded with a growing, healthy saolapopulation in the Central Annamites Species Recovery Landscape.”

SWG biologists and partners are currentlytesting several techniques to detect the saola, ranging from “tried-and-true”methods, like automated camera traps, to newer ones including environmentalDNA.

Camera trap efforts in the saola’s rangehave provided invaluable information about other rare and endemic Annamitespecies in recent years, including the Annamite-striped rabbit and thecritically endangered large-antlered muntjac, which is a species of barkingdeer.

Large and medium-sized mammals in theAnnamites are threatened by intensive poaching, usually accomplished by thesetting of wire snares. SWG and partners will also use the breeding centre toestablish the first conservation programme for the large-antlered muntjac,which was discovered two years after the saola. This will be the firstorganised attempt to breed either species.

The Saola Working Group works collaboratively to conserve saola in nature, andto leverage saola as a flagship for conservation of the bio-cultural diversityof the Annamite Mountains as a whole. The Saola Working Group is part of theIUCN Species Survival Commission’s Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group. The SWGwas formed in 2006 in recognition of the need for urgent, focused andcoordinated action to save saola from extinction.-VNA