Paris (AFP)

A mysterious little Asian ruminant, which scientists had lost sight of for more than 25 years, was photographed in Vietnam, reports a study published Monday in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

This mammal is a silver-backed chevrolet (Tragulus Versicolor), a ruminant present only in Vietnam and very rarely studied.

"Imagine a deer that has been narrowed to the size of a small poodle, remove his antlers and add two small canines to him.Then plunge two-thirds of the animal in a bucket of silver-gray paint: you will get a chevrot to silver back, "Andrew Tilker of Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC), co-author of the study, told AFP.

It's been over a quarter of a century since scientists had heard of animals. They feared that the devastating snaring, though forbidden, had pushed these small ruminants to the brink of extinction.

An Nguyen from GWC and his colleagues decided to investigate.

"There was very little information available to tell us the direction to follow and we did not know what to expect," says the Vietnamese biologist in a statement from the GWC.

Based on previous observations (the first dating back to the early nineteenth century), scientists have chosen three Vietnamese provinces to interview the population.

On his indications, they then placed about thirty cameras equipped with motion detectors in the surrounding forests.

And there, surprise! In two campaigns, the cameras spotted nearly 300 visits to Tragulus Versicolor.

"To discover that he is still here is the first step in determining the best way to protect him and make sure we do not lose him," says Nguyen.

Because "it is not because we found this species quite easily that it is not threatened," warns Andrew Tilker who also works for the Leibniz Institute for Wildlife Research and Zoo in Germany.

Researchers believe that further surveys are needed to better understand the distribution of ruminants.

"The chevrotain remains an important part of the country's natural heritage and, more generally, ungulate species such as the chevrotain fulfill important ecological functions, notably by dispersing seeds," adds the researcher.

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