Poaching is putting the saola, a rare species of ox found only in Vietnam and Laos, at risk, World Wildlife Fund expert Sarah Brook told Tuoi Tre.
Brook referred to a recent capture and death of the critically endangered bovine in Laos, adding the adult male was found with a wound in his leg after being trapped.
The saola had been brought by villagers to Bolikhamxay Province, and a team from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Wildlife Conservation Society had gone to examine and release it last week.
But the ox, weakened after being held in captivity, died soon after the team arrived.
It is not known why the villagers, who reportedly found the saola in their sacred forest late August, captured him in the first place. But authorities are telling villagers not to capture the animal and to release any they find.
With its unusually long horns and characteristic white markings on the face, the antelope-like saola is a strong symbol of biodiversity in Laos and Vietnam.
Discovered in May 1992 by the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry and the WWF in the Vu Quang Nature Reserve in north-central Vietnam, the species remains almost as elusive as it was more than a decade ago.
Only two or three other large mammals in Southeast Asia, including the Javan rhinoceros, are so close to extinction as the saola.
The problem is compounded by the fact that there are no populations of saola held in zoos anywhere.
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