Spotted: One of the rarest mammals on Earth

last updated 8 January 2015

Chances are good no one will be celebrating if you decide to step out for a walk through the forest and happen to get captured on camera.

But you are a human. If, on the other hand, you're a long-horned ox called the saola, expect some serious chatter on a global scale.

So why all the buzz about a grainy image? Well, this rare mammal was only just discovered in 1992, thanks to a skull with unusual horns found in the mountains that separate Laos from Vietnam. Since then, the saola has been seen only once in the wild, in 1998.

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With so little known about the beautiful creature, the photograph understandably excited scientists, who believe there may be only a couple hundred saolas left.

It's not the only rare animal sighting of late. Scientists in January reveled in their filming of the elusive giant squid in its natural habitat — the Pacific Ocean — for the first time ever.

And after its first brush with a camera lens in 2006, the Sumatran rhinoceros made just its second on-screen appearance the following year, when the rhino investigated a camera set up on the island of Borneo, in Malaysia.

Lauren Hansen produces The Weekâ€™s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.