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Indonesian wildlife officials rescued the rarest rabbit in the world – a Sumatran striped rabbit as they accidentally spotted it on a Facebook sale.

Conservation groups and officials from the Kerinci Seblat National Park in the Indonesian island of Sumatra immediately tracked down the seller and rescued the rabbit as it appeared on a Facebook sale, CNA reported.

The seller was a farmer, who captured the rabbit at the edge of the park next to a river that had just flooded violently. It had a slight injury to its flank, which was probably sustained during the flash flood.

Deborah Martyr, a programme manager from Fauna & Flora International (FFI), an international conservation charity, said it is significant to eyeball such an elusive species.

Officials from the national park also explained to the farmer that what he had capture, and the farmer was happy to see the rabbit returned to the national park, according to Martyr.

The rarest rabbit in the world has now been released back into the forest by the park rangers, at a site with cameras monitoring its movements.

The rabbit is thought to be the rarest species among all lagomorphs – rabbits, hares and pikas.

This species is known only from a dozen specimens collected in early 20th century. The specimens are now in a museum in the Netherlands.

World's rarest rabbit saved after put up for sale on Facebook