A tiny creature that looks part-deer, part-mouse has been spotted for the first time in nearly three decades in southern Vietnam, researchers announced Monday.

Feared-extinct, the silver-backed chevrotain hadn’t been seen since 1990 when a hunter in central Vietnam killed one and donated the specimen to scientists.

Photos of the elusive rabbit-sized animal tiptoeing in the wild were published in scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution on Monday, following a five-month-long expedition by a team of wildlife experts.

“For so long this species has seemingly only existed as part of our imagination,” said An Nguyen, a conservation scientist for the nonprofit Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) and expedition team leader.

“Discovering that it is, indeed, still out there, is the first step in ensuring we don’t lose it again, and we’re moving quickly now to figure out how best to protect it,” Nguyen added in a press release.

Also known as the Vietnamese mouse-deer, the creatures typically weigh less than 10 pounds and have a silver sheen on their back and two tiny fangs. They are the world’s smallest ungulate, or hoofed animal.

Scientists believed the species had fallen prey to habitat loss and hunting as part of the illegal wildlife trade and it was placed on GWC’s list of “25 most wanted” lost species.

Researchers with GWC, the Southern Institute of Ecology in Vietnam and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany set up more than two dozen camera traps in the wild and captured nearly 2,000 images of a handful of the mysterious mammals.

“The rediscovery of the silver-backed chevrotain provides big hope for the conservation of biodiversity, especially threatened species, in Vietnam,” said Hoang Minh Duc, head of the Southern Institute of Ecology’s Department of Zoology.

Scientists will begin new camera trap surveys in two additional areas in an attempt to determine how large the population is to better understand threats to its survival.