This elegant specimen is a soala. It lives in Laos and Vietnam and was only discovered in 1992. Apparently it's "one of the world's rarest mammals," and indeed there are only a handful of picture of it online.
"The animal's prominent white facial markings and long tapering horns lend it a singular beauty, and its reclusive habits in the wet forests of the Annamites an air of mystery," said Barney Long, of the IUCN Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group, last September at an emergency meeting to save the species. "Saola have rarely been seen or photographed, and have proved difficult to keep alive in captivity…Its wild population may number only in the dozens, certainly not more than a few hundred."
It's crazy to think there might be other large mammals that we still don't know about. Let's hope we can save this one (the "singular beauty" should help with that campaign).Thanks, Jaime.
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