The Jackson’s Climbing Salamander is one of the most elusive and rare creatures on the planet. In fact, no one had even seen one in 42 years — until now.
As a guard was patrolling Finca San Isidro Amphibian Reserve in Guatemala, he noticed a little salamander that he hadn’t seen in real life before, only in pictures. The guard snapped a picture of the amphibian and sent it to Carlos Vasquez, curator of herpetology at USAC University in Guatemala for a closer look.
Earlier in the year, Vasquez showed pictures of the salamander to the guards, he wanted them to keep a lookout. The curator has spent over 3,000 hours and gone on over 30 trips trying to locate the rare and elusive creature.
Before the discovery, the salamander had only been seen by human beings twice before in recorded history.
“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,” Vasquez said. “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.”
This discovery was an exciting, but an extremely important moment for the Jackson’s Climbing Salamander. This could lead to the repopulation of the rare and almost extinct species. But they aren’t the only species that is on the danger of going extinct.
The Global Wildlife Conservation estimates that between 0.01 and 0.1 percent of species on the planet go extinct each year. Possibly more, since humans haven’t discovered all species yet.
The GWC has recently commissioned an excursion to try and locate 25 species that are in serious danger of becoming extinct.
“Expeditions for lost species are going to take scientists across the planet from the dark depths of the ocean to the bottom of rushing freshwater rivers, from the lush jungles of the tropics, to the seemingly barren wastelands of the desert,” Don Church, GWC president and director of conservation, said when the expedition was announced.
Ever since this bright-colored salamander was found, the scientific community is ecstatic and hopeful about other nearly-extinct species.
“I love this story because it conveys how protecting habitat gives species a fighting chance to survive on this planet,” Church said. “This rediscovery can only be a good omen for the future of the Search for Lost Species campaign. It’s a sign that if we get out there and work at it, many of these species can be found and saved.”
Back in the 1970’s, Jeremy Jackson and Paul Elias were two American explorers who discovered three rare species of salamander, one of which was the Jackson’s Climbing Salamander. Since their discoveries, only two of the amphibians had been seen, but no one had spotted the Jackson’s Climbing Salamander
“The night I got the news from Carlos that Bolitoglossa Jacksoni had been rediscovered, I flew off the couch where I’d been falling asleep, let loose a string of expletives (in a good way), and did a little happy dance,” Jackson said.
“The rediscovery of this rarest of the rare shows how important habitat preservation is to the persistence of these special animals in these exceptional places,” Elias added. “For me personally it is a moment of sheer joy.”
If you’d like to learn more about the world’s “lost species” and how you can help, visit the Global Wildlife Conservation for more information.
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