Paris (AFP)
- A very rare species of small, deer-like animal thought to be on the verge of
extinction has been spotted in the northwestern jungle of Vietnam for the first
time in nearly 30 years.
Known as
the Silver-backed Chevrotain or Mouse deer, a specimen was last recorded in
1990, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and
Evolution.
The
species, Tragulus versicolor, was first described in 1910 based on several
animals found near Nha Trang, about 450 kilometres (280 miles) northeast of Ho
Chi Minh City.
With no
confirmed sightings since 1990, experts assumed the species must have been
pushed to the brink of extinction by hunting.
However
Vietnamese biologist An Nguyen, who works with Global Wildlife Concervation and
is a PhD student at the Leibnitze Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, had
been wondering for years whether the Silver-backed Chevrotain might still be
holding on somewhere.
Working
with colleagues Barney Long and Andrew Tilker, the experts got together with
local villagers to sift through reported sightings.
Some were
consistent enough with the Silver-backed Chevrotain to justify putting up more
than 30 motion-activated cameras in nearby forested habitats.
"The
results were amazing. I was overjoyed when we checked the camera traps and saw
photographs of a chevrotain with silver flanks," said Nguyen.
Tilker
cautioned in a blog post however that "just because we found this species
relatively easily doesn't mean it is not threatened".
Forests in
southeast Asia are under tremendous pressure from growing populations and
development "so we need to get ahead of the curve" on conservation,
Tilker added.
In May, a
United Nations body of biodiversity experts, known as IPBES, issued a landmark
report warning that up to one million species face the risk of extinction due
to humanity's impact on the planet.
No comments:
Post a Comment