Jackson's Climbing Salamander
Missing for 42 years — then found on the wall of a nature reserve hut
No confirmed photograph exists
Location
Cuchumatanes Mountains, Huehuetenango, Guatemala
Overview
Jackson's climbing salamander is a small, vividly orange amphibian from the cloud forests of Guatemala's Cuchumatanes Mountains. It was described in 1975 from a handful of specimens and then vanished from scientific records entirely for 42 years. In 2017, park ranger Carlos Vásquez Almazán found one clinging to the wall of a building inside the Finca San Isidro Amphibian Reserve — a private protected area established in part to give lost species like this one a chance. The salamander had been missing for so long it had been listed as one of the world's 25 most wanted lost species.
Why haven't we found it?
Cloud forest salamanders in Central America are notoriously difficult to survey. They are small, nocturnal, highly cryptic, and live in bromeliads and on mossy tree bark — microhabitats that require hands-and-knees searching to inspect. The Cuchumatanes range is large and steep, with many unexplored ridges. The salamander was probably always there; it simply requires the right person to look in the right bromeliad on the right night.
How it was found
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The 2017 rediscovery came from a reserve specifically established to protect this and other lost amphibians — demonstrating that targeted habitat protection works even before a species is confirmed present.
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After the initial find, additional specimens were located in the same area within months, suggesting a small but viable population.
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Amphibian surveys across Guatemala have intensified since the rediscovery, with multiple institutions now monitoring the Cuchumatanes cloud forest.
Things worth knowing
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The bright orange colour is a warning — many salamanders in this family produce mild skin toxins. The salamander's colouring makes it almost invisible against the orange bromeliads it lives in, which is both camouflage and advertisement.
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It is named after Jeremy Jackson, an American herpetologist who worked in Central America in the 1970s.
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The 42-year gap between discovery and rediscovery is not unusual for cloud forest amphibians — Guatemala's highlands have many poorly surveyed ridges and the fungal disease chytridiomycosis has decimated amphibian populations across Central America.
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The reserve where it was found was established with explicit conservation intent before the animal was confirmed there — a bet that paid off.
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Global Wildlife Conservation, which coordinated the search, listed it as one of the 'top 25 most wanted lost species' in 2017; it was the first species from that list to be rediscovered.