Conservation of the Saola (Vu Quang Ox or Asian Biocorn)

862 Words2 Pages

The phenomenal recent discovery of the species saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), was found in the Annamite Mountains along the Laos/Vietnam border in 1992. The saola was the first latest large mammal to be discovered in over 50 years, making it one of the biggest zoological discoveries of the 20th century. Also known as the “Asian unicorn,” the rare saola species prefer living in moist, dense evergreen forests with little or no dry season. The saolas have been attempting to survive in the condensed regions of the subtropical evergreen or mixed evergreen and deciduous forests, only found within the Annamite Mountain Range along the northwest-southeast Vietnam-Laos border (Holcomb). The area of the narrow range of the forests that the saola used to inhabit was is 5,000 to 15,000 sq. km, although they don’t inhabit in this area anymore. The saolas’ extremely scarce numbers make their dispersal difficult to determine; currently, they are known to be densely populated into the decreasing area of the evergreen forests and travel mainly individually and occasionally in clumped dispersion. They have been mainly sighted nearby streams, most likely to survive off of the water and possible supplies nearby. Saolas also tend to live on the borderlines of the forests; they currently inhabit the mountain forests during the wetter seasons and live in the lowlands during the winter. Saola are currently known to be herbivores, eating leafy plants, fig leaves, and stems along the rivers, observed from locals that have sighted them. And their shelters that they specifically reside in are unknown.
According to recent studies, the saolas are categorized as critically endangered, with its population size estimated to the miniscule numbers from 70 up to 7...

... middle of paper ...

...cies in critical danger of extinction, action must be taken to save the small population of the saolas. And even though this video isn’t exactly going to help the saolas from keeping their distance from extinction, letting the people know is a first, groundbreaking milestone.

Works Cited

Holcomb, D. 2005. "Pseudoryx nghetinhensis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed March 14, 2014 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Pseudoryx_nghetinhensis/
Timmins, R.J., Robichaud, W.G., Long, B., Hedges, S., Steinmetz, R., Abramov, A., Do Tuoc & Mallon, D.P. 2008. Pseudoryx nghetinhensis. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. . Downloaded on 14 March 2014.
"Saola Working Group." Saola Working Group (About/Projects). N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
WorldWildlife.org. World Wildlife Fund, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

More about Conservation of the Saola (Vu Quang Ox or Asian Biocorn)

Open Document