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The Asian Unicorn (Saola)
=Interesting creatures=
By Shervin Belgrave
Kaieteur News – Unicorns are mythical creatures but there is one that lives in the Annamite Mountains of Vietnam and Laos. Scientists call this creature Saola but it is popularly known as the Asian Unicorn.
Recent photos taken of the Asian unicorn
Unlike the mythical stories, the Asian Unicorn does not have a horn with magical properties. It has two parallel sharp horns that can grow up to 20 inch long that gives it a strong resemblance to the unicorns in fairy tales.
The saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) is also called spindle horn by many and is one of the world’s rarest and largest forest dwelling mammals. It was first discovered in 1992 following the discovery of its remains at in the Vũ Quang National Park, Vietnam via a joint survey of the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry and the World Wide Fund for Nature.
The team found a skull with unusually long, straight horns in a hunter’s home and knew it was something extraordinary. The find proved to be the first large mammal new to science in more than 50 years and one of the most spectacular zoological discoveries of the 20th century.
Scientists have since captured Saolas to study then but they do not survive very long and would die within a matter of weeks.
The Asian Unicorns have thin soft hair on the head and neck but thickens to woolly hair on the insides of the forelegs and the belly. Studies before 1998 reported a hint of red in the inspected skins. The neck and the belly are a paler shade of brown compared to the rest of the body.
It has round pupils with dark-brown irises that appear orange when light is shone into them, along with a cluster of white whiskers about 2 centimetres long.
Both male and females have slightly divergent horns that are similar in appearance and form almost the same angle with the skull, but differ in their lengths.
The saola has one of the smallest ranges of any large mammal; it inhabits wet evergreen or deciduous forests in eastern Southeast Asia, preferring river valleys.
Sightings have been reported from steep river valleys at 300–1,800 metres (980–5,910 ft) above sea level. During the winters, it migrates to the lowlands.
These animals are believed to have a diet of various species of broad-leaved shrubs or trees.
Very little is known about the reproductive cycle of the saola but the creature is likely to have a fixed mating season, from late August to mid-November.
Only single calf births have been documented, mainly during summer between mid-April and late June.
Source of Information: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saola)
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