The importance of wildlife in nature can’t be denied, especially when the balance of nature is dependent on wildlife. However, the harmful practices conducted by humans severely affect the wildlife resulting in the extinction of few. Such was the case with silver-backed chevrotain, a mouse-like deer which dwelled inside the woods of Vietnam in a small community. Recently, this animal is spotted in Vietnam after 30 long years. Researchers after putting much effort have finally found the footage of this animal and that too alive.
The small 10 pound animal looked like a hybrid between a deer and a mouse, but in reality it is neither. It was a different species altogether which was named silver-backed chevrotain due to its silvery torso. Researchers have been looking for this species for the past three decades as the chevrotain was one of the rarest species on the verge of extinction. This animal was called by different names by the researchers. While some called it the Vietnamese mouse-deer, some also referred to it as a miniature fanged deer.
The silver-backed chevrotain is actually a mammal which was last seen in 1990 in Vietnam. The researchers at GWC or Global Wildlife Conservation have ranked this mammal as number one in their priority list to seek and protect extinct or endangered species. The GWC is an organization which has occupied itself to save the wildlife and their habitat for the conservation of environment. The organization joined hands with Southern Institute of Ecology in Vietnam to capture footage of the rare species and also work to safeguard its existence.
“The search for more animals of this species is still going on. We are trying our best to assemble evidence of this species which we thought had gone extinct. This is great news for all of us as we have been trying to locate this species since a long time. The discovery of the species is especially important to us because when spotted in 1990, the animal was found dead due to hunting. This time, we have found it alive.” Says Nguyen, one of the expedition’s leaders. According to GWC, the main reason for the species to be endangered is the high demand of Chevrotain meat in the restaurants which has resulted in high rate of illegal poaching.
