One of the rarest and most secretive animals in the world was captured in remote Laos last month, confirming the antelope-like creature still exists after a decade without a sighting.

The Government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic announced this week that in late August, villagers in the province of Bolikhamxay captured a saola in a nearby forest that they consider sacred. They brought it back to their village, where it died several days later. It is not clear why they captured the animal.

"The death of this saola is unfortunate. But at least it confirms an area where it still occurs, and the government will immediately move to strengthen conservation efforts there," an official with the provincial conservation unit of Bolikhamxay province said in a release.

The last confirmed record of a saola was in 1999 when automatic camera traps recorded two images of the animal in the wild. They are so seldom seen that they are often called the Asian unicorn, even though they have two horns.

While it looks like an antelope, the saola is actually related to wild cattle. It has two long slender horns and white facial markings. It was only discovered by scientists in 1992 in Vietnam's Vu Quang Nature Reserve, near the country's border with Laos.

Today, saola are thought to live only in the forests of the Annamite Mountains along the Lao-Vietnamese border. The species is considered critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which estimates that no more than a few hundred survive. In fact, it is one of the most threatened large mammals on the planet, and there are none in zoos anywhere in the world, according to the IUCN.

When news of the saola's capture reached Laos authorities, they sent a team of experts to examine the saola and release it. But the animal, an adult male weakened after several days in captivity, died shortly after the team reached the remote village.

"We hope the information gained from the incident can be used to insure that this is not the last saola anyone has a chance to see," William Robichaud, co-ordinator of the IUCN's saola working group, said in a release, adding that the government was to be commended for its rapid effort to save the animal.

The carcass was transported to Pakxan, the provincial capital, where biologists plan to study what they say is the first saola specimen to be so completely preserved.

Pierre Comizzoli, a veterinarian with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C., and a member of the saola working group, says studying the animal's carcass might help to save it.

"Our lack of knowledge of saola biology is a major constraint to efforts to conserve it, and this can be a major step forward in understanding this remarkable and mysterious species," he said in a release.

Meanwhile, Laotian authorities are urging villagers in the area not to capture the animals.