Cambodia Photo: IC

A critically endangered giant barking deer has been spotted in Cambodia for the first time, in a boost for the country's wildlife preservation efforts, officials said Friday.

The giant muntjac - known for its long antlers - was captured on a hidden camera in April in northeast Cambodia's Virachey National Park in Ratanakiri province, environment ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra said.

But the discovery was only made recently after Cambodian authorities retrieved the camera and trawled through months of footage from the forest, which has long been a site of illegal logging. "This is the most exciting news for the whole world that such a rare and most critically endangered species was discovered in Cambodia," he said.

The species was first found in forests in neighboring Vietnam and Laos in 1994.Muntiacus vuquangensis, as it is scientifically known, is on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered.