JOHANNESBURG -- South African and international scientists have found Angola's elusive and graceful giant sable antelope, thought to be extinct for the last 30 years, the expedition's leader said on Friday.

"Three seperate sightings of the giant sable antelope were recorded," said Wouter Van Hoven, a professor at the center for wildlife management at Pretoria University.

"The first sighting was of two adult bulls, followed by a second bull and two juveniles," Van Hoven told AFP.

The expedition which also included a camera crew filming on behalf of National Geographic, drove to southern Angola with two four-wheel-drive trucks before being flown to the country's central Malange Province.

"From Malange several aerial surveys of the Luando reserve by helicopter gave no sightings of the antelope," Van Hoven said. "The reason for this is presumably that the antelope is very sensitive to the presence of helicopters in the area and avoids sound at all costs."

The scientist said interviews with tribal chiefs revealed that the animals were often sighted in the Luando reserve by locals.

The expedition changed tactics and did ground surveys on foot in the nearby Cangandala National Park, where the three animals were spotted.

The giant sable antelope (Hippotragus Niger Varianii) was last seen and recorded in 1972, three years before civil war broke out between government forces and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

UNITA rebels earlier this month formally disbanded their military wing and laid down their arms, effectively ending a 27-year rebellion since the country's independence from Portugal.

Fighting in Africa's longest running conflict killed at least half a million people, displaced an estimated four million others and decimated the country's once abundant wildlife stocks.

The team in conjunction with the Kissama Foundation and the Augustino Neto University in Luanda and Richard Estes, the last scientist to study the animal, were able to enter the area to look for the antelope, described by Van Hoven as a "magnificent animal".

Similar to the commonly found sable antelope, except for a variation on color and longer horns of about 1.5 metres (five feet), the antelope was believed to move mainly in herds grazing on the greenery of flood plains in the area.

"The expedition has proven that there is a viable breeding population of giant sable antelope in the Cangala National Park," Van Hoven said.