Endangered mammal appears on trail camera and ends yearslong search in Vietnam
In a hard-to-reach area of northern Vietnam, a “timid” mammal moved through the rocky forest landscape, pausing to sniff the ground. Unbeknownst to it, nearby trail cameras captured its every movement.
The photos ended a yearslong search for the rare and endangered animal.
Conservationists and rangers from Vietnam’s Forestry Protection Department set up several trail cameras in Cao Bằng province in hopes of documenting a dwarf musk deer, Fauna & Flora, a conservation organization, said in a May 2 news release.
“Scientists have been searching for the musk deer in this area (Cao Bằng province) for years without success,” Tho Duc Nguyen, a program manager with Fauna & Flora Vietnam, said in the release.
So when the team eventually checked their trail cameras, they were stunned.
The cameras had several photos of “rare” dwarf musk deer, the organization said. It was “the first time the species has been officially recorded in the wild in this area for decades.”
Dwarf musk deer, or forest musk deer, are a small species of antlerless deer found mainly in Asia. They are known for their “scent glands, which produce pheromones to attract a mate” and are “highly sought after for use in perfumes,” the organization said.
As a result, dwarf musk deer are considered endangered. The “remaining population in Vietnam, which was last estimated at under 50 individuals in 2023, continues to face severe pressure from trapping and snaring, and from habitat fragmentation,” conservationists said.
Photos show the “timid little deer, only about two feet tall,” walking near the camera, perching on a rock and passing by at night. Fauna & Flora did not specify how many animals were photographed.
“This discovery would not have been possible without the help of local community members and the local Forestry Protection Departments, 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,” Nguyen said. “Their local knowledge of the area — and how to navigate it — has been vital to our conservation efforts.”
“Fauna & Flora’s work in Cao Bằng focuses on conserving the critically endangered cao vit gibbon, but there are many more wonderful and rare species living in and around this area, like the forest musk deer,” Aishwarya Maheshwari, a technical specialist with the organization, said in the release.
“This latest record offers renewed hope for the forest musk deer in the country,” the organization said.
The team plans to use the trail camera footage “to secure a better estimate of the forest musk deer’s population size in Cao Bằng, and will work with local communities to conduct a more systematic camera-trapping effort,” the organization said.
Cao Bằng province is in northern Vietnam and along the border with China.
This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 11:55 AM with the headline "Endangered mammal appears on trail camera and ends yearslong search in Vietnam."
