After nearly 30 years, a rare deer like animal that was thought to have gone extinct has been traced in the jungles of Vietnam.p The small deer like animal known as Silver backed Chevrotain or Vietnam Mouse Deer was last spotted in 1990.
The Mouse Deer (Tragulus Versicolor) was spotted in the North Western jungle of Vietnam, according to a paper published in nature Ecology and Evolution. Mouse deer are actually not deer or mice but they are ungulates (group including deer along with other herbivores, hoofed animals). Out of the ten types of mouse deer that exist today, the silver backed species is the most elusive one.
TheVietnam Deer Mouse was first traced in 1901 near Nha Tang, about 500 km northeast of Ho Chi Min City. When no species was confirmed to have been sighted since 1990, the wild life experts and nature lovers thought that this species might have gone extinct or was at the verge of extinction.
Though the species was thought to have been extinct, a group of researchers under Vietnamese biologist An Nguyen were on the run in the hope of tracing the Mouse Deer. They had installed cameras in different locations and villages with the help of villagers. After years of waiting, one Vietnamese Mouse deer was caught n the camera, which has raised hopes that the animal has not gone extinct. Nguyen works with the Global Wildlife Conservation.
Nguyen was quoted in the media as saying that the finding of the Mouse deer was really overwhelming. However, he cautioned that the findings does not show that the species is out of danger of getting extinct.
