Saola | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | Bovidae |
Subfamily: | Bovinae |
Tribe: | Bovini |
Genus: | Pseudoryx Dung, Giao, Chinh, Tuoc, Arctander & MacKinnon, 1993 |
Species: | P. nghetinhensis
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Binomial name | |
Pseudoryx nghetinhensis Dung, Giao, Chinh, Tuoc, Arctander & MacKinnon, 1993
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Range in Vietnam and Laos |
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 National Park by a joint survey of the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry and the World Wide Fund for Nature.[2][3][4] Saolas have since been kept in captivity multiple times, although only for short periods as they died within a matter of weeks to months.[5] The species was first reported in 1992 by Do Tuoc, a forest ecologist, and his associates.[5] The first photograph of a living saola was taken in captivity in 1993. The most recent one was taken in 2013 by a movement-triggered camera in the forest of central Vietnam.[6][7] It is the only species in the genus Pseudoryx.