Researchers thrilled after trail cameras capture critically endangered creature for first time in decades: 'We've found it'

Trail cameras have helped researchers spot the endangered forest musk deer in northern Vietnam. This is the first time the forest musk deer has been spotted in Cao Bằng Province in decades.

This is some of the latest work done by Fauna & Flora, an international conservation charity and nongovernmental organization based in the United Kingdom.

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"Scientists have been searching for this musk deer for years with no success," Nguyen Duc Tho, project manager for Fauna & Flora in Vietnam, told Discover Wildlife. "Now we've found it!"

One of the pictures, which The Guardian shared, shows the two-foot musk deer in front of what looks like a rock face.

According to Discover Wildlife, musk deer are crucial to a forest's biodiversity. They spread seeds and allow the land around them to thrive, which protects the food chains of many species. While it's unfortunate that no more than 50 may exist, this sighting means that the almost-extinct forest musk deer still has a future.

In addition to its work in Vietnam on the forest musk deer and the cao vit gibbon, Fauna & Flora wants to expand its observation to other species such as the Asiatic black bear. More wildlife sightings could communicate the importance of spaces including the Cao Vit Gibbon Species and Habitat Conservation Area and could translate to additional land for the preserve.

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"It's critical therefore that we emphasise the importance of protecting not just the official conservation area but the surrounding habitats, too," said Aishwarya Maheshwari, a senior technical specialist at Fauna & Flora. "By driving landscape level efforts, we can deliver more effective conservation that also benefits people and the climate."

Trail cameras allow work like this to happen in India, Australia, and many more places around the world. Researchers can't be everywhere at once, so strategically placed trail cameras allow them to check in on a species or observe a species' absence. Sometimes, they discover a species that hasn't been seen in over a century.

Nguyen also explained to Discover Wildlife that Fauna & Flora's work is happening because of "the help of local community members and the local Forest Protection Department, 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."

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