The fanged Afghan deer believed extinct for the last 60 years has been sighted in northeast Afghanistan by a group of researchers.

The Kashmir Musk Deer was last spotted in 1948 and has since eluded researchers wanting to verify if the species still exists.

In the Oct. 22 issue of the journal Oryx, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) reported five documented sightings of the fanged deer in the rugged forested slopes of the northeastern region of Afghanistan.

Like Us on Facebook

A lone male was spotted thrice in the same area followed by sightings of a female with a juvenile deer and the same female without her young. The skittish deer were difficult to spot and didn't stay in place for long to be photographed, said the researchers.

The deer are herbivores that don't use their fangs for hunting or sucking blood. Discovery News explains the male's fangs are used for jousting with other males to impress potential mates during the breeding season. 

Aside from its distinct fangs, the Kashmir Musk Deer is also prized for its scent glands, which command up to US$20,000 per kilogram on the black market, making them more valuable than gold in terms of weight. For centuries, the scent glands have been used to make perfumes, medicine and incense. 

Intense poaching and hunting over the last decades added the species to the endangered status as defined by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List, a leading organization on the preservation of endangered wildlife species.

The group earlier said the fanged deer was last seen by a Danish survey team passing through the region more half a century before.

Dubbed as one of Afghanistan's living treasures, the fanged Afghan deer has been the focus of wildlife preservation groups in recent years, along with another rare but better known endangered species like the snow leopards.

WCS pulled out its team from Afghanistan in 2010 sue to security concerns.

Peter Zahler, a member of the WCS research team, said they're coordinating the preservation of the endangered Kashmir Musk Deer with locals and will pursue research when the violent conflicts subsides.

Tagsfanged Afghan deer, Kashmir Musk Deer, endangered wildlife