Pseudoryx
| Saola | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Bovinae |
| Genus: |
Pseudoryx Dung, Giao, Chinh, Tuoc, Arctander and MacKinnon, 1993 |
| Species: | P. nghetinhensis |
| Binomial name | |
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Pseudoryx nghetinhensis Dung, Giao, Chinh, Tuoc, Arctander, MacKinnon, 1993 |
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| Range in Vietnam | |
The saola, siola, Vu Quang ox, spindlehorn, or Asian bicorn, also, infrequently, Vu Quang bovid (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), is one of the world's rarest large mammal, a forest-dwelling bovine found only in the Annamite Range of Vietnam and Laos. Related to cattle, goats, and antelopes, the species was defined following a discovery of remains in 1992 in Vũ Quang Nature Reserve by a joint survey of the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry and the World Wide Fund for Nature. Saolas have since been kept in captivity multiple times, although only for short periods. A living saola in the wild was first photographed in 1999 by a camera trap set by WWF and the Vietnamese government’s Forest Protection Department (SFNC).
The name saola has been translated as "spindle[-horned]" although the precise meaning is actually "spinning-wheel post horn". The name comes from a Tai language of Vietnam (by connotation that "Priceless, like the moon and the stars"), but the meaning is the same in the Lao language (ເສົາຫລາ, also spelled ເສົາຫຼາ /sǎo-lǎː/ in Lao). The specific name nghetinhensis refers to the two Vietnamese provinces of Nghệ An and Hà Tĩnh while Pseudoryx acknowledges the animal's similarities with the Arabian or African oryx. Hmong people in Laos refer to the animal as saht-supahp, a term derived from Lao (ສັດສຸພາບ /sàt supʰáːp/) meaning "the polite animal", because it moves quietly through the forest. Other names used by minority groups in the Saola's range are lagiang (Van Kieu), a ngao (Ta Oi) and xoong xor (Katu) In the press, saolas have been referred to as "Asian unicorns", an appellation apparently due to the saola's rarity and reported gentle nature, and perhaps because both the saola and the oryx have been linked with the unicorn. No known link exists with the Western unicorn myth or the "Chinese unicorn", the qilin.
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Wikipedia