Jackson's Salamander Rediscovered After 42 Years

Jackson's climbing salamander (Bolitoglossa jacksoni) is a species of salamander that was first discovered in 1975 by two students, Paul Elias and Jeremy Jackson, under bark in the cloud forest of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes in western Guatemala.

That was the first and the last time the species was seen. Actually, if you check wikipedia's entry on the species it still reads the following:

" Jackson's climbing salamander was last seen in 1975. The salamander is among the 25 “most wanted lost” species that are the focus of Global Wildlife Conservation’s “Search for Lost Species” initiative."

Since like a few hours ago, it needs some updating as the species has been re-spotted in Guatemala by Ramos León, guard at the Finka San Isidro Amphibian Reserve while he was on patrol earlier on October, according to this press release. 

The rediscovered Jackson's Climbing Salamander, Credit: Carlos Vasquez Almazan

Ramos took a photo of the small, bright yellow creature and sent it to Carlos Vasquez, a biologist at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala who confirmed the species. 

Interestingly, since 2005 Vasquez has done more 30 trips and spend a total of more than 3.000 trying to find the salamander. However, the creature, also known as the “golden wonder” for its brilliant yellow coloring remained elusive.

Credit: Carlos Vasquez Almazan

So, earlier this year Carlos decided that his best bet was to hold a workshop and showed the four guards of the reserve photos of the animal and explained them possible areas they could spot it,  mainly moss, leaves and bark:

"I explained to them how important this species is and I left a poster there so they could see a picture of the Jackson's climbing salamander every single day.  We had started to fear that the species was gone, and now it's like it has come back from extinction. It's a beautiful story, and marks a promised future for the conservation of this special region."  Vasquez said. 

Delighted that his efforts finally came into fruition, now Vasquez and his team plan to do more research in the area where the individual was located, hoping to spot more of them and understand the species' ecology and conservation status better.

Credit: Carlos Vasquez Almazan

In case you wonder,  the salamander was re-spotted only 300 meters higher than the location where the two students had first discovered it in 1975. The same two students had also discovered two more species; the Finca Chiblac salamander and the long-limbed salamander. These two went also missing for decades, and were also rediscovered again by Vasquez the first in 2009 and the latter in 2010!

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