Andrew Tilker

There was no reason to think that it was extinct, but at the same time, we didnt know that it wasnt extinct, no scientist or naturalist had any idea whether it was still out there.

We want to understand how threatened the silver-backed chevrotain is and to develop evidence-based conservation strategies to protect it, if we dont implement conservation efforts to protect this species now, the next time the species disappears, we might not find it again.

We dont know if the silver-backed chevrotain is endangered by snaring pressure because we dont have enough information, but this is in the back of our minds as a probable threat just because snaring is so widespread.

We had these two historical localities separated by quite some distance — one in the southern part of Vietnam and the other much further north, but we knew that many people have camera-trapped in the wet evergreen forests and hadn't seen it, so we thought we should look at the dry forest habitat that's really different and where not many people have looked.

Then nothing. So little known about it that the species was one g... by Andrew Tilker

Then nothing. So little known about it that the species was one giant question mark.

To the scientific world this was a lost species, but local people had known about it. It was only by utilizing the local ecological knowledge that we were successful. That can be replicated for other species in other parts of the world.