Roosevelt’s Muntjac rediscovered in Vietnam’s nature reserve

Thanh Hoa, October 7 (VNA) – Scientists counted a population of almost 30 Roosevelt’s Muntjacs, a species believed to have become extinct 84 years ago, in Xuan Lien Nature Reserve in the central province of Thanh Hoa. The scientists, from the Hanoi National University, deployed camera traps and recorded a healthy population of these deer-like mammals in the reserve when conducting a project on investigating and conserving muntjac species in Xuan Lien Nature Reserve in 2012-2014. When sightings of the rare muntjac species were reported, experts tracked and found samples of their faeces, which were identified as belonging to the Roosevelt’s Muntjac. Since then, the Centre for Natural Resources and Environment Studies (CRES) at the Hanoi National University worked with the reserve to monitor the endangered species and implement protection and conservation measures. They also found Roosevelt’s Muntjac hides and horns in several local households which did hunting the species in the absence of knowledge about them. DNA samples taken from those found at these households proved identical to the DNA of a Roosevelt’s Muntjac exhibited at the Museum of Natural History in the US. The mammal was last identified in the Laotian province of Houaphan in 1929.-VNA