‘Asian Unicorn’ Sighting: Rare Mammal Captured On Camera For First Time Since 1999; Less Than A Few Hundred Saola Live In Wild

The "Asian unicorn," or the saola, was captured on camera in Vietnam for the first time since a 1999 sighting. The "Asian unicorn" is one of the rarest mammals in the world.

The saola looks similar to an antelope, and lives only in the Annamite Mountains ribbing Vietnam and Laos. It has two sharp, parallel horns that can grow up to 20 inches, The Christian Science Monitor Reports. In Vietnamese, saola means "spindle horns."

The horned saola are so rarely seen or captured in pictures that they are often called "Asian unicorns."

Conservation group WWF released the image of the "Asian unicorn" captured on camera, along with a statement on Wednesday, Fox News reports.

"This is a breathtaking discovery and renews hope for the recovery of the species," Van Ngoc Thinh, WWF's Vietnam director, said.

"When our team first looked at the photos we couldn't believe our eyes," Thinh added in a WWF statement. "Saola are the holy grail for South-east Asian conservationists so there was a lot of excitement."

The last time a saola was officially spotted in the wild was in 1999 in Laos, CBS News reports. It was last seen in Vietnam in 1998, according to Dang Dinh Nguyen, who leads the Quang Nam Forest Protection Department and Quang Nam's Saola Nature Reserve.

"This is an historic moment in Vietnam's efforts to protect our extraordinary biodiversity, and provides powerful evidence of the effectiveness of conservation efforts in critical saola habitat," he said in a statement.

According to the WWF, fewer than a couple hundred, and maybe even only a few dozen, saola live in the wild in the remote, dense forests along Vietnam's border with Laos, Fox News reports.

The "Asian unicorn" was discovered in 1992, and was the first large mammal to be newly identified in more than 50 years, CBS News reports.

According to Fox News, WWF has recruited forest guards locally to remove snares and battle illegal hunting in the area where the saola was photographed. These are the greatest threat to the survival of the "Asian unicorn," the statement said.

The snares are set to catch other animals, such as deer and civets, which are a delicacy in Vietnam.