Tilker and colleagues went to the dry coastal forested areas in the vicinity of the southern beach city of Nha Trang where, in 1910, the only other scientific specimens were collected. Camera traps in Vietnam wet tropical forests have never recorded a sighting, so it may be that these animals prefer a dry, thorn scrub forest habitat.

(Although such forests are not common, there are parts of Vietnam that remind me of my home state of Texas,) Tilker says.