Lunching ranger discovers species lost for 40 years

In 1975 two conservationists discovered a gorgeous salamander in the rainforests of Guatemala. No one ever saw it again – and Jackson’s climbing salamander was feared extinct – until last month when local forest guard, Ramos León-Tomás, sat down in the forest for lunch.

Jeremy Hance
Tuesday 14 November 2017 03.52 EST Last modified on Tuesday 14 November 2017 03.54 EST

The last time anyone saw Jackson’s climbing salamander – I didn’t 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 over a decade of civil war, two American 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 over 100,000 years and species are vanishing at rates that portend mass extinction. Yet, miracles can still happen.
Last month, Ramos León-Tomás, a 27-year-old guard from the Q’anjob’al Mayan community, was having lunch on the edges of the the Finca San Isidro Amphibian Reserve when he found what dozens of previous surveys could not – a small juvenile salamander, black and gold.

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