The last time anyone saw Jackson’s climbing salamander — it did not yet exist. It was 1975: Margaret Thatcher took over leadership of the Tories, Saigon fell to communist forces, the USSR was still a thing and everyone was listening to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
And in Guatemala, reeling from more than a decade of civil war, two US conservationists found a little treasure of black and gold: they named it Jackson’s climbing salamander. Then it vanished as if it had never been.
Forty-two years later, a lot has changed. The world is hotter than it has been in more than 100,000 years and species are vanishing at rates that portend mass extinction. Yet, miracles can still happen.
Last month, Ramos Leon-Tomas, a 27-year-old guard from the Q’anjob’al Mayan community, was having lunch on the edges of the Finca San Isidro Amphibian Reserve (also known as the Yal Unin Yul Witz Reserve) when he found what dozens of previous surveys could not — a small juvenile salamander, black and gold.
Leon-Tomas took several photographs and sent them on to Carlos Vasquez Almazan, the amphibian coordinator with the Foundation for Ecodevelopment and Conservation.
“I took [deep breaths] for a couple of hours, until they managed to send me a photo through WhatsApp, because the region is remote and there is little good Internet signal,” said Vasquez, who had visited the reserve more than 30 times to look for the species. “It was definitely the sought-after and awaited Jackson’s climbing salamander.”
Earlier in the year, Vasquez had again visited the reserve in the Cuchumatanes Mountains and given a workshop for forest guards like Leon-Tomas on the missing salamander.
“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.
Amazingly, the species was rediscovered just six months after Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) launched a campaign announcing that it would be searching for 25 lost species in coming years. On that list: Jackson’s climbing salamander.
“The salamander grew to iconic status, its profile elevated by every unsuccessful expedition to find it,” GWC communications director Robin Moore said.
An expert on amphibians, Moore is well-known for spearheading the Search for Lost Frogs campaign in 2010. In 2014, he joined an unsuccessful expedition looking for Jackson’s climbing salamander.
“I got chills,” he said of seeing Leon-Tomas’ photographs of the lost species for the first time. “In addition to being a phenomenal rediscovery of a beautiful and unique salamander, it marked the icing on a conservation success story.”
The success is all the more poignant, because it was achieved by a humble, local forest guard.
Leon-Tomas said he felt “very enthusiastic” when he saw the salamander.
Describing himself as a “poor person with children,” he said he hopes the discovery will bring more support to the rangers of Finca San Isidro Amphibian Reserve.
So how did this tiny salamander avoid detection for so long? It turns out scientists might have been looking in the wrong places.
Leon-Tomas found the single salamander — a juvenile — nearly 305m higher in altitude than researchers expected based on where the only other two individuals of the species were found in 1975.
Researchers theorize that climate change might have pushed the species upslope, a phenomenon that has been documented for many species worldwide who are moving higher to escape the heat — assuming they have a place to move to.
Vasquez said it is “premature” to start theorizing about how many Jackson’s climbing salamanders might be left.
What needs to happen now are surveys to find more, he added.
Still, given that only three individuals have ever been found in the past 42 years, it is likely the species is threatened with extinction.
The biggest threat is deforestation for coffee plantations, corn and firewood, Vasquez said.
It is unknown if Jackson’s climbing salamander has been hit by chytridiomycosis, an amphibian fungal disease that has caused the extinction of several amphibians in the past few decades.
In the meantime, conservationists hope to expand the existing reserve to cover the higher elevations that might house the super-rare species.
In January, a new expedition led by University of California, Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology is to head to the park to look for more specimens.
Finca San Isidro Amphibian Reserve was founded in 2015 in part because conservationists hoped Jackson’s climbing salamander would come back from the dead.
Four other rare amphibians are found there: the long-limbed salamander, the Finca Chiblac salamander, the black-eyed tree frog and the Cuchumatan golden toad — only described by researchers in 2012.
GWC will not immediately replace Jackson’s climbing salamander on their list of 25 Lost Species — although it will at some point down the road.
“We still have our work cut out on the planning for 24 further expeditions,” Moore said.
One down. Two dozen to go. Hopefully, more miracles await.
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