Although there is still enough potential saola habitat in Laos and Vietnam to support a larger saola population, the IUCN notes, that would require a significant change in current trends.

Even then, it was already endangered. Today, even the most optimistic estimates say fewer than 100 saola individuals (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) remain, but it could also be extinct by now.

In the photos, a saola was moving along a stream in a small valley on September 7. Photo: WWF . The map of distribution of saola in the remote forests in the Truong Son mountain range on the border of ...

Twenty years on, little is still known about the saola’s ecology or behaviour. In 2010, villagers in the central Laos province of Bolikhamxay captured a saola, but the animal died several days later.

Native to Vietnam, the saola is a horned species so illusive, it’s been nicknamed the Asian unicorn. Researchers reconstructed the genomes of 26 saola using samples from hunting trophies.

Researchers have sequenced the genome of the saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) for the first time, offering new insights into the history and conservation prospects of one of the world’s rarest mammals.