For almost 100 years, it lived unseen in one of the remotest parts of Earth – until this chance photo

A "LOST" species of deer has been rediscovered almost a century after its last confirmed sighting, it was revealed yesterday.

Forest rangers came across the tiny Sumatran muntjac on an expedition through the mountains of Indonesia and captured the animal on film. The species was discovered in 1914 but there had not been a confirmed sighting since.

The rangers took the photographs in 2002 but did not realise until years later that they had found a species that was thought to be extinct.

Debbie Martyr and a colleague rescued the deer – about the size of a large dog – from a tiger hunter's snare 6,400 feet high in the mountains of the Kerinci- Seblat National Park while they were looking for poachers.

Ms Martyr said: "We got a report that there were snares active in the area and we went to take a look and see what was going on.

"We found two tiger snares then followed a trail and found this deer caught. It was about 70 centimetres high, a hind, and it was pregnant.

"The ranger I was with gave it a massage with some special oils because it had a sore leg. I took lots of photographs because I thought there was something not quite right.

"I know my cats and my primates very well but I'm not as well up on the deer. Lots of species are very variable so you have to be careful if something is not quite the right colour or the right size."

They then set the animal free. "It went off on all four legs. It had a bit of a limp – but it had a chance," said Ms Martyr.

Robert Timmins, a British naturalist and muntjac expert, later contacted the park looking for any evidence of the "lost" species. He identified the animal in the picture as a Sumatran muntjac.

Ms Martyr said: "He contacted me, I sent him the photographs of the deer we found, and he said: 'Oh'."

Mr Timmins said: "Muntjac have largely lain obscure for the twentieth century and we have certainly much more to learn about them."

The Fauna and Flora Foundation, the international charity that runs the tiger protection scheme in the national park, hopes the rediscovery of the Sumatran muntjac (muntiacus montanus) will help efforts to preserve the area, which is under threat from slash and burn farming methods and climate change.

Ms Martyr said: "This encounter shows just how much we still have to discover about Sumatra's rainforests and the biodiversity of Kerinci-Seblat National Park.

"Yet even as we are learning, the tropical rainforests of Sumatra – even in the mountains and national parks – are under threat. We face losing species we didn't even know existed."

Director of the Kerinci-Seblat National Park Authority, Suyatno Sukandar, said: "We were already very proud of this national park and its globally famous biodiversity, and that pride has increased further with this new discovery.

"I hope that we can all work together – communities, local government and the national and international scientific and conservation community – to study and conserve this new species of deer for the future. One of the functions of a national park is to increase knowledge.

"This discovery shows the importance of further research into the hill and mountain rainforests of Sumatra.

"I strongly suspect that more new species remain to be identified in the forests of Kerinci-Seblat National Park."

Taxonomists have now confirmed that the Sumatran muntjac is a new species and not a sub-species, as had been assumed.

The species is distinctly smaller and darker than its more common sister species, the red muntjac (muntiacus muntjac).

The "lost muntjac of Sumatra" has now been placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list of species in danger, under the category "data deficient", meaning field research is urgently needed to establish the details of the deer's range, ecology and population status.

PROFILE

The Kerinci-Seblat National Park in Sumatra consists of 6,000 square miles set around the highest peaks on the Indonesian island.

Most of the national park consists of montane and hill forests – some of them unexplored. The area became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004. The densely forested area is home to around 136 Sumatran tigers – about a quarter of the island's tiger population. Flora and Fauna International have run an operation to combat poaching in the park since 2000.