Vietnam Trail Cam Snaps Rare Species for First Time in Decades

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Scientists have been looking for evidence of endangered forest musk deer in Vietnam’s Cao Bang province for years, but they couldn’t find any—until now. Remote camera traps carefully placed in hard-to-reach areas captured trail-cam photos of the rare musk deer, and this is exciting news for the conservation community.

Fauna & Flora says the photos mark “the first time the species has been officially recorded in the wild in this area for decades.” The forest musk deer is one of several musk-deer species that all live in Asia.

musk deer 2 — *Musk deer image from trail cam. Local Forestry Protection Department / Fauna & Flora*

The team will use the new data to estimate the musk deer’s population size in Cao Bang. With this first confirmed sighting in more than two decades, scientists have “renewed hope” for the species in Vietnam.

The local community was invaluable in placing the trail cams, according to Tho Duc Nguyen, project manager for the Fauna & Flora Vietnam Programme.

“Scientists have been searching for the musk deer in this area for years without success. Now we’ve found it,” said Nguyen in a statement. “This discovery would not have been possible without the help of local community members and the local Forestry Protection Departments, who provided critical intelligence on where the musk deer may be found, and guided us to extremely difficult locations so that we could set up camera traps.”