This article talks about how a nature reserve has been established in central Vietnam for the critically endangered saola. The saola looks like a small deer or antelope with two horns. It is locally know as the Asian 'unicorn'. Researchers believe that the saola are numbered from a few dozen to a few hundred which is why the WWF has made the nature reserve. The land set aside last week in the central province of Quang Nam is rich in bio-diversity and home to an estimated 50 to 60 saolas, said Pham Thanh Lam, director of the Forest Bureau in the province. The article also talks about how hunting is a way to earn a living for many ethnic minority people. Lam said that if they didn't establish a nature reserve for the saola, it would have definitely become extinct. Aside from the reserve the WWF is making an effort to educate people who live in the area about the saola's possible extinction.
I think that the WWF made the right move by establishing a nature reserve for the saola. Because many of the people in Vietnam have to hunt for food it was inevitable that the saola would have become extinct if somebody didn't do something. When a species numbers gets bellow a thousand you know that they could be on the verge of becoming extinct; the saola's numbers are anything from a few dozen to a few hundred so it was absolutely essential that the WWF made a reserve when they did.
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