Rare 'Asian unicorn' spotted after 15yrs in Vietnam

One of the earth's rarest and most threatened mammals, Saola, a long-horned ox, dubbed Asian unicorn, was caught on camera in central Vietnam forest for the first time in 15 years.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said that the sighting in September has renewed hope for the species' recovery, Stuff.co.nz reported.

The animal was found in the remote areas of high mountains near the border with Laos in 1992, when a collaborative effort from WWF and Vietnam's forest control agency found a skull with unusual horns in a hunter's home.

According to WWF, at that time, it was the first large mammal discovered in more than half decade.

Dang Dinh Nguyen, director of the Saola natural reserve in central province of Quang Nam, said that in Vietnam, the last sighting of a Saola in the wild was in 1998.

Scientists estimate that at best, no more than few hundreds, and maybe only a few dozen, still survive in the remote, dense forests along the border with Laos.