Rare ‘Asian unicorn’ photographed in Vietnam forest for the first time in 15 years

One of the Earth"s rarest animals, known as the ‘Asian unico", has been spotted in a forest in Vietnam's central Annamite mountains.

The elusive saola was photographed by a strategically-placed camera trap hidden in the trees foliage.

It is the first time that the endangered hoed creature has been spotted in the wild in the country for 15 years.

The antelope-like animal is seen walking through dense foliage at the edge of the camera's range in the image taken in September.

Conservation group WWF released the image of the long-hoed ox today.

In a statement, Van Ngoc Thinh, WWF's Vietnam director, said: 'When our team first looked at the photos we couldn't believe our eyes. Saola are the holy grail for South East Asian conservationists so there was a lot of excitement.

‘This is a breathtaking discovery and renews hope for the recovery of the species."

The animal was discovered in remote mountains near Laos in 1992 when a joint team of WWF and Vietnam's forest control agency found a skull with unusual hos in a hunter's home.

Despite the creature's 'unico' nickname, it in fact has two hos.

The find proved to be the first large mammal new to science in more than 50 years, according to the WWF.

This is the image taken by a strategically-placed camera hidden in a forest in Vietnam that shows the elusive saola (ringed). It is the first time that the endangered hoed creature has been spotted in 15 years

The creatures have two parallel hos with sharp ends that can reach 50 centimetres in length.

Two saola were captured in central Vietnam in 1993 but died in captivity after several months.

The last sighting of a saola in the wild was in 1998, according to Dang Dinh Nguyen, director of a saola nature reserve in Vietnam's central province of Quang Nam. 

WWF has recruited forest guards locally to remove snares and battle illegal hunting in the area where the saola was photographed, in a bid to eradicate the greatest threat to saolas' survival.

The snares had been set largely to catch other animals, such as deer and civets, which are a delicacy in Vietnam.

The animal was discovered in remote mountains near Laos in 1992 when a joint team of WWF and Vietnam's forest control agency found a skull with unusual hos in a hunter's home. This photo taken in 1993

The creature has been spotted in a forest in Vietnam's central Annamite mountains, which are full of lush, moist vegetation for the animals to graze upon and hide in

Twenty years since they were first known to science, the elusive mammals remain hard to detect and little is known about them.

At best, no more than few hundred and maybe only a few dozen of the creatures live in the remote, dense forests along Vietnam's border with Laos, WWF said.