Inside the magic mountains
It’s never easy to find a new mammal species these days, but one region of Asia seems to be particularly good at concealing them!
The Annamite Mountains, a range that straddles Laos and Vietnam, have turned up more that their fair share of new species over the last ten years,
The Sumatran rabbit has been seen only once since 1916, but was found three dead rabbits for sale at a remote market stall. Further research then led to them being photographed. In the late 1990s a forest pig and the saola, a hoofed animal like an antelope, were also been found in the region. In the neighbouring forests of Burma the world’s smallest deer species was discovered and also a new species of large mammal, the Vietnamese rhinoceros was found.
The huge mountain range still clearly has secrets to give up and continued research in the area should reveal more of its wildlife treatures.
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