Saola Foundation Winter Seminar Series 2025: The Large-antlered Muntjac
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Dear Friends of Saola and the Annamite Mountains,
News from the Field – The Race is on to Find Saola
Our Annual Report 2023 can be downloaded here. In addition, we have a 5-minute video version, viewable here – Enjoy!
In 2024 to date, our Annamite Mountains Research and Conservation Team have kicked the search for Saola into top gear. The combined efforts of our human and canine trackers are demonstrating an incredible ability to find ungulate dung— collecting more than 900 samples this year already (adding to the 1500 collected in 2023). Hundreds of these have undergone testing, with more to go. At this level of effort, if Saola is out there we believe we will find it!
Vatsana with the Saola Foundation scent detection dogs, Norman (left) and Bertie (right).
Congratulations to Vatsana Chanthavong, our Scent Detection Dog Team Leader, for being awarded a place in the Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP) Women in Conservation Visible Leadership Programme! Thank you ASAP for championing women in conservation.
A Special Appeal and a New Way to Join the Search
We are in a race against time to find Saola. At this time of great progress, we need your help more than ever to keep our team in the field. There are a number of ways you can support our program. Every donation, no matter the size, helps us towards our mission to find and save Saola.
Embark on an extraordinary journey with us through our Pay for a Day Campaign! For just US$1,000, you can sponsor a full day of our Saola search, supporting an elite scent detection dog and wildlife tracking team as they search the Annamite Mountains for Saola. By sponsoring a day or more, you’re contributing to vital Annamite Mountains conservation efforts, and you will receive exclusive perks and benefits as a token of our appreciation.
Click here to find out more about Pay for a Day
Spaces for sponsorship are limited, with current bookings available from August 1st, 2024, to July 31st, 2025. Don’t miss out— secure your spot today via our website.
Become a Monthly Donor
For as little as US$30 per month, you can play a vital role in supporting our dedicated team on the ground. Your monthly contribution will support essential field supplies (e.g. food and first aid) and support the salaries of our incredible Lao team. This is a simple yet powerful way to make a tangible difference in the fight to save Saola. To become a monthly donor and join us in our conservation journey, visit our website or reach out to us directly at info@saolafoundation.org. Your generosity will directly impact the lives of our team members and contribute to the broader mission of biodiversity conservation in the Annamite Mountains.
Equipment Donation
You can target your contributions to support critical field equipment, such as resupplies of DNA testing equipment that allows us to test dung samples for Saola DNA, or camera traps to help with our monitoring efforts. If you are interested in making a contribution in this way, please reach out at info@saolafoundation.org.
Nashville Zoo supported us by donating this truck!
Expressing our Gratitude for Major Donations in 2024
A special welcome to Working Dogs for Conservation with support from the Seadream Foundation as our newest Saola Gold Partner for their incredible co-funding support of US$135,000 in 2023 for our Scent Detection Dog Team.
Gold Partners contribute at least US$50,000 within an annual period. You can read more about the benefits of becoming a partner here. These partnerships represent our most committed and valued supporters, and we are so grateful for the work that they make possible. If you are interested in joining the Gold Circle, please reach out to us at info@saolafoundation.org
We extend our deepest gratitude to all of our generous donors and supporters. In particular, we want to acknowledge the following individuals for their substantial contributions since the beginning of this year:
Mandai Nature, Continuation funding
Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation (Continuation funding & Capacity and Organizational Strengthening grant)
Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong, Conservation fund grant
Ramona Mays, Continuation funding
Scentbird Inc., Saola perfume proceeds
The Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust
Clayton and Zoë Williams
Charles McCaffree
Steve* and Ann Burns (*Chair, Saola Foundation)
Michael Hedemark and Arlyne Johnson
Keep tuned,
– The Saola Foundation Team

10th November 2023
It is with great sadness that we announce the resignation of Board member and Co-Founder, Bill Robichaud, from the Saola Foundation. Bill has been intimately involved in the growth and success of our organization from the very start, guiding us with his passion and unwavering commitment to Saola conservation.

Bill with Saola skull

We extend our deepest gratitude for Bill’s service to the organization, and his long, pivotal contributions to Saola and Annamite Mountains conservation. Throughout Bill’s tenure with the Saola Foundation we have achieved numerous remarkable milestones, from our successful launch during the Covid-19 pandemic, building our Board of Directors and Advisory Council, growing our global support network, building a strong relationship with the Government of Lao, and taking significant strides in our mission to help save Saola in the wild and contribute towards the conservation of the Annamite Mountains.
Bill’s outstanding contributions to the conservation of Saola and the Annamite Mountains span almost three decades. Here is just a small sample of some of Bill’s work featured in podcasts and articles, through which he has shared his deep expertise with audiences around the world.
Podcast:
(also available via the Saola Foundation’s podcast channel on Spotify), July 2023
Article: The Search to Find, and Save, the Last Saola: Going all-in to find a mysterious, charismatic mammal in the mountains of Southeast Asia, Jeremy Leon Hance, Feb 2024
Article: Secret wars, secret creatures, and hope, Bill Robichaud, Oct 2023
Article: In Search of the Lao Unicorn, Eric Ness (date unknown)
On behalf of the entire Saola Foundation, we express our heartfelt gratitude for Bill’s years of service and leadership. As we bid farewell, we wish Bill all the best in his next chapter, and in his continuing contributions to conservation in the region and beyond.
Pi Mai ປີໃໝ່
As it is Pi Mai Lao (the Lao Lunar New Year), we want to take this opportunity to wish our Lao team and partners a prosperous and happy New Year!

Our Lao team celebrating Pi Mai with a traditional Baci ceremony to usher in good luck for the year ahead.
Upcoming Newsletter
Looking ahead, in our upcoming Spring newsletter, we are excited to update you on the incredible progress of our field team, the growth in our partnership with the Government of Laos, and the announcement of a special new campaign to support the search for Saola.
See you soon!
Sincerely,
– The Saola Foundation Team
Our mailing address is:
Saola Foundation
512 N 50th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53208 USA
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10th November 2023
We trust those who joined our seminar with Vatsana last month found it exciting and informative. Now, we are delighted to bring you another engaging experience with another Lao woman working on wildlife conservation, Saturday, March 23 (see local times and registration link below).
Prepare for an unprecedented glimpse into one of nature’s most elusive marvels, the Clouded Leopard, with trailblazing biologist Dr. Akchousanh Rasphone. She will pull back the veil on these solitary cats of Southeast Asia’s dense forests and, from her own field research in Laos, explore the Clouded Leopard’s extraordinary adaptations, finely-tuned hunting strategies, and enigmatic social behaviors. But behind the mystique lies a harsh reality, with deforestation, poaching, and a diminishing prey base threatening their survival. Dr. Rasphone offers an impassioned call to protect vital habitat, partner with local communities to combat poaching, and ensure sustainable prey populations, so that Clouded Leopards can remain a marvelous part of the forest.

Dr. Rasphone has nearly 20 years of experience in wildlife conservation in Laos. Her expertise lies in field research, biodiversity monitoring, GIS and biostatistical modelling. Her passion lies in learning about an animal’s ecology and using the knowledge for effective conservation. For the WCS Lao Program, she led wildlife research across various sites in the country. In her current role as Conservation Director at WWF-Laos, she focuses at present on conservation of the Asian Giant Softshell Turtle and the Asian elephant.
In 2019, she completed her Ph.D. in Zoology from Oxford University, with research in northern Laos on interactions between wild felids, such as the Clouded Leopard, and Dholes.
“Into the Realm of the Clouded Leopard: A Conservationist’s Quest”, with Dr. Akchousanh Rasphone, live on Saturday, March 23, at these local times; register here.
07:00 am US Pacific
08:00 am US Mountain
09:00 am US Central
10:00 am US Eastern
14:00 London
15:00 most of continental Europe
21:00 Vientiane/Hanoi/Bangkok
22:00: Singapore/Beijing/Hong Kong/Taipei
Hope to see you there!
– The Saola Foundation Team
Our mailing address is:
Saola Foundation
512 N 50th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53208 USA
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
10th November 2023
On a recent call with several of our major supporters, Jack Tordoff, the Managing Director of a major global initiative, the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (www.cepf.net), expressed the view that the Saola Foundation is “the best team that’s ever been assembled for a conservation initiative in Southeast Asia”.
We are humbled by and grateful for Jack’s high praise. After all our hard work, made possible by your support, it means a lot, especially coming from someone with Jack’s long experience in the region. We have indeed come a long way since we rolled out just a few years ago.
On this occasion, we make a special appeal for your continued support to help keep our amazing team in the field, working to save Saola and the Annamite Mountains. Can you show the Saola Foundation team, and Saola, a bit of post-Valentine’s Day love, by making a donation today, here?

Your support comes at an important time, with our work on the Saola search ratcheting up in the field. And we are pleased to invite you for a live update with a key member of our field team, Ms. Vatsana Chanthavong, the Saola Foundation’s Scent Detection Dog Team Leader. Please join Vatsana for a live Zoom presentation from Laos on Saturday, February 24 (local times below). She will share an update on her groundbreaking work, in partnership with Working Dogs for Conservation, to establish Laos’s first ever Scent Detection Dog Team. Vatsana’s talk is free, but registration is required: register.

We hope to see you there! In the meantime, read more about our team and our recent progress in this article just published by environmental writer Jeremy Hance, in the online magazine Ensia, here.
with much gratitude!,
The (best) Saola Foundation team
“First Detection Dog Team for Annamite Mountains Conservation in Laos”, with Vatsana Chanthavong, live on Saturday, February 24, at these local times; register here.
06:30 am US Pacific
07:30 am US Mountain
08:30 am US Central
09:30 am US Eastern
14:30 London
15:30 most of continental Europe
21:30 Vientiane/Hanoi/Bangkok
22:30: Singapore/Beijing/Hong Kong/Taipei
Our mailing address is:
Saola Foundation
512 N 50th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53208 USA
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You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.


Our 2023 holiday card features the marvelous work of the Saola Foundation’s expedition photographer, Souksamlan Laladeth, aka “Toun”. Toun photographed these beautiful amphibians and reptiles in the Saola’s range in the Annamite Mountains of Lao PDR. They are a snapshot of the diversity of life we are working the protect with Saola at the heart.
Your support to our mission is important, and deeply appreciated!
From all of us at the Saola Foundation for the Annamite Mountains Conservation, we wish you happy holidays and a prosperous and abundance New Year!
For assistance with this year’s card, we are grateful to artist Eric Losh and herpetologists Dr. Bryan Stuart, Prof. Dr. Truong Nguyen and Prof. Dr. Thomas Ziegler.
And Christmas has come early for the Saola Foundation!

We are delighted to announce and welcome the newest members of the Saola Gold Circle, an initiative that recognizes and provides exclusive benefits to our most generous donors (those who donate at least $50,000 within one year to our Saola and Annamites program). Givskud Zootopia and Odense Zoo are two wonderful, smaller yet conservation-committed zoos in central Denmark. These near- neighbors have been supporting the Saola Foundation since early on; in fact, Odense Zoo was a Founding Supporter of the Saola Foundation. And now, the two have joined forces to contribute 50,000 euros to our Saola search.
This sort of commitment and partnership are essential to help us find and save Saola. We are so very grateful to these two zoos, and in particular to their supportive directors, Richard Østerballe at Givskud Zootopia and Bjarne Klausen at Odense. Thank you, and Glædelig Jul!
The Saola Foundation Team
Our mailing address is:
Saola Foundation
512 N 50th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53208 USA
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.