The Ballad of Lenore (1839, oil on canvas) | Horace Vernet

photograph by Michelle Peters

Observed by francinas, CC BY-NC

lobotomy kitty

One of the rarest large animals in the world, the saola first became known to science in 1992. In may of that year, a team of scientists acquired a strange, unknown pair of horns from a local hunter; only a year later, the first photo of a saola was taken from a captive specimen. The saola lives in a small area of tropical forest in the Annamite mountain range on the Indochinese peninsula. It is critically endangered, but unfortunately saola kept in captivity do not live for very long, so conservation efforts have been very difficult.

Belladonna of Sadness (1973)

Strayed from the Flock, 1867 - oil on canvas — Briton Riviere (British, 1840-1920)

Nilgai with cattle egret