Chordates • Earth.com

Saola

(Pseudoryx nghetinhensis)

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Description

The saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), also called spindlehorn, Asian unicorn, or infrequently, Vu Quang bovid, is one of the world's rarest large mammals, a forest-dwelling bovine native to the Annamite Range in Vietnam and Laos. It was described in 1993 following a discovery of remains in Vũ Quang Nature Reserve by a joint survey of the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry and the World Wide Fund for Nature. Saolas have since been kept in captivity multiple times, although only for short periods as they died within a matter of weeks to months. The species was first reported in 1992 by Do Tuoc, a forest ecologist, and his associates and a living wild saola was first photographed in 1993 in captivity, and last photographed in 2013 by a movement-triggered camera in the forest. In May 1992, the Ministry of Forestry, Vietnam sent a survey team to examine the biodiversity of the newly established Vu Quang National Park. On this team were Do Tuoc, Le Van Cham and Vu Van Dung (of the Forest Inventory and Planning Institute); Nguyen Van Sang (of the Institute of Ecological and Biological Resources); Nguyen Thai Tu (of Vinh University); and John MacKinnon (of the World Wildlife Fund). On 21 May, the team procured a skull featuring a pair of strange, long and pointed horns from a local hunter. They came across a similar pair in the Annamite Range in the northeastern region of the reserve the following day. The team ascribed these features to a new bovid species, calling it the "saola" or the "Vu Quang ox" to avoid confusion with the sympatric serow. The WWF officially announced the discovery of the new species on 17 July 1992. According to biodiversity specialist Tony Whitten, though Vietnam boasts a variety of flora and fauna, many of which have been recently described, the discovery of as large an animal as the saola was quite unexpected. The saola was the first large mammal to be discovered in the area for 50 years. Observations of live saola have been few and far between, restricted to the Annamite Range. The scientific name of the saola is Pseudoryx nghetinhensis. It is the sole member of the genus Pseudoryx and is classified under the family Bovidae. The species was first described in 1993 by Vu Van Dung, Do Tuoc, biologists Pham Mong Giao and Nguyen Ngoc Chinh, Peter Arctander of the University of Copenhagen and John MacKinnon. The discovery of saola remains in 1992 generated huge scientific interest due to the animal's special physical traits.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum:
Class: Mammalia
Order:Artiodactyla
Family:Bovidae
Genus:Pseudoryx
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