Image Credit; Minh Nguyen’s CLP team / SWG / Asian Arks / Khammouane PAFO and DAFO
Large-antlered Muntjac
The Large-antlered Muntjac (Muntiacus vuquangensis) is one of the Annamite Mountains’ most remarkable recent discoveries. It came to scientific attention alongside the Saola and the Annamite Striped Rabbit, part of an astonishing series of new species discoveries that brought the Annamite Mountains Bioregion to global attention.
Today it is listed as Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, and it is one of the species we consider in imminent danger of global extinction.
An overlooked flagship
Conservation funding tends to favor charismatic, well-known species such as Tiger and elephants. Those species have insurance populations that could one day be used to restore them to the Annamites. Overlooked species such as the Large-antlered Muntjac and the Saola have no such safety net. They suffer from limited attention and investment, and once they are gone, they are gone forever.
The Large-antlered Muntjac is also a flagship. It is associated with irreplaceable ecosystems that sustain many more cryptic and otherwise overlooked species facing imminent global extinction, many of them not yet described by science. Protecting it helps protect them.
A bioregion under pressure
The Annamite Mountains run along the border of Lao and Viet Nam and into eastern Cambodia. The Annamite Mountains Bioregion is a center of endemism within the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot.
Since the early 1990s, industrial-scale snaring has swept through Annamite forests, and tens of millions of snares have been dispersed across the region. Commercially driven hunting is wiping out large mammal populations throughout the Annamites.
Annamite evergreen forest program (Large-antlered Muntjac)
This program is in development. Our objective is to develop an effective long-term management strategy for the Large-antlered Muntjac, and for other species facing imminent global extinction, at a site of irreplaceable biodiversity significance in Lao.
In close collaboration with the Government of Lao PDR, we will:
Investigate the feasibility of conservation initiatives at carefully selected candidate sites, each evaluated for its significance to other species facing imminent global extinction and for the likelihood of success.
Develop and establish, at the most appropriate site, an on-the-ground approach that prioritizes immediate interventions to protect and stabilize populations of Large-antlered Muntjac and other species on the precipice of extinction.
The outcome we will work toward is an in situ conservation program in Lao that provides effective protection for the Large-antlered Muntjac and maximizes conservation benefits for other species facing imminent global extinction.
Part of a ten-year commitment
The Large-antlered Muntjac is one of three iconic Annamite species at the center of our ten-year goals, alongside the Saola and the Bolikhamxay Leaf Monkey. We use each as a flagship to protect and restore in situ ecosystems and the irreplaceable biodiversity they sustain.
Our mission is to protect the rich biodiversity of the Annamite Mountains Bioregion by leading efforts to prevent unrecoverable biodiversity loss through a combination of direct interventions, empowering national conservationists, conducting applied research and priority setting, and collaborating with key stakeholders.
Support this work
Gifts to a particular program are welcome. To discuss supporting the Large-antlered Muntjac program, contact info@saolafoundation.org, or see Ways to Give.