The GuardianA distinctly two-tone Vietnamese mouse deer that was feared lost to science has been captured on film foraging for food by camera traps set up in a Vietnamese forest. The photographs of the rabbit-sized animal, also known as the silver-backed chevrotain, are the first to be taken in the wild and come nearly 30 years after the last confirmed sighting. The silver-backed chevrotain is a half-painted beast: Behind the russet head, neck and front legs lies a silver-gray body and hind legs with by a white, grizzled bottom. Though probably preyed on by leopards, wild dogs and pythons, scientists fear that hunters’ snares have pushed the species to the brink of extinction. Based on the information, the scientists installed three camera traps in a lowland forest in southern Vietnam.

Source: Taipei Times November 12, 2019 16:04 UTC