MANSALAY, PHILIPPINES - OCTOBER 16: A ranger training his eyes on a decades old binoculars to spot areas where tamaraw grazes, on October 16, 2018 in Mansalay, Mindoro province, Philippines. The Tamaraw is one of the most critically endangered animal species in the Philippines as a result of a rinderpest outbreak in the 1930s that were allegedly brought by cattle farming in the area and poaching, but the number of the wild dwarf buffalo increased to 523 in April this year with help from a team of rag-tag but dedicated forest rangers. Armed only with makeshift equipments and leaking binoculars to monitor the animals activity and numbers, and home meade shotguns to ward off illegal hunters and poachers, the rangers for decades managed to protect the Tamaraw and their habitat. Standing at about a meter tall with relatively short V-shaped horns, the endangered buffalo lives in the mountains of Mindoro island and is one of the proposed national symbols in the Philippines. The Tamaraw population was reportedly estimated to be 10,000 in the early 1900s but numbers declined drastically due to a combination of cattle-killing rinderpest and poaching which left less than 100 survivors by 1969, and prompted conservation parties to enforce ranger patrol at Mounts Iglit-Baco National Park in central Philippines. The Tamaraw Conservation Program employed tribesmen as trackers and forest rangers to preserve the Tamaraw which led to fewer poachers and indigenous people from entering the protected mountains of Mindoro island. (Photo by Jes Aznar/Getty Images)