'Asian unicorn' at risk of extinction from poaching, WWF warns

A female saola captured in 1996

On the 20th anniversary of the saola's , 'Asian Unicorn', discovery, conservationists say the population of the reclusive species has dropped dramatically because of its illegal hunting in Vietnam and Laos.
The WWF has warned that they areclose to extinction as the estimates of the current saola population range from 10 to several hundred.

The saola is an antelope-like reclusive species that lives in remote regions of the Annamite mountains on the border of Vietnam and Laos, dubbed the Asian Unicorn because it is so rarely seen.
 It came to worldwide attention in 1992 as the first large mammal to be discovered in over 50 years when surveyors from the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry and the WWF found skulls of the unknown species in mountain villages. DNA tests have indicated it is a bovine related to cattle, though it resembles a wild goat or antelope with two parallel horns found on both males and females.

The Annamite mountains are home to 42 ethnic groups, according to a WWF expert, each with their own culture, language, and hunting practices. Since 1992, the animal has mainly been sighted by scientists with camera traps. One was captured by villagers in Bolikhamxay province, Laos in 2010, but it died in captivity before researchers could reach the village. No scientist has spotted the saola in person.

The habitat of the saola makes the species very difficult to track but also to protect. The animal resides in very specific and remote pockets of a mountain range Long described as an already "very remote, very steep, very wet, very difficult terrain."