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Bolitoglossa jacksonii rediscovered

schmiggle

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I realize I'm kind of late to the party, but apparently Jackson's Bolitoglossa was rediscovered this year!
https://www.rainforesttrust.org/news/lost-salamander-rediscovered-rainforest-trust-project-site/
I first found out about this salamander about a year or two ago, and I remember thinking how sad I was that its habitat had been preserved but the salamander remained unseen, despite extensive searching. Yet here it is, and unmistakably so--this isn't one of those cases where it might be a different species with an overlapping range that kind of looks the same. What an exciting find! I've seen elsewhere that it might live in the canopy, which would definitely go a long way toward explaining why it hadn't been seen, particularly if it reproduces in the canopy as well.
 

Nativenewt

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This is still a positive reminder that despite habitat loss and other factors like bsal, there is still hope for many species that haven't been seen or are thought to be extinct. Maybe one day when us humans learn to coexist more peacefully with other species, we will all find that the majority of anurans and caudates will still have at least a small population somewhere to carry on the genetic code.
 

taherman

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Kind of last minute, but please consider donating to this campaign. I'd call this the rarest salamander on earth, and one of the most spectacular. Donating to this campaign will go a long way to expanding the reserve to protect the only known habitat on the planet where it has been found in my lifetime.

Conservation means nothing without protecting the habitat.

https://secure.qgiv.com/for/sasogt

Also please note that all donations are matched by the Sheth Shangreal Foundation up to $15 million!

This is the 3rd known specimen of Bolitoglossa jacksoni ever found, after 40 years of searching, in northwestern Guatemala, October 2017.
B_jacksoni_1-wm.jpg
 

schmiggle

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This is still a positive reminder that despite habitat loss and other factors like bsal, there is still hope for many species that haven't been seen or are thought to be extinct. Maybe one day when us humans learn to coexist more peacefully with other species, we will all find that the majority of anurans and caudates will still have at least a small population somewhere to carry on the genetic code.
Someone should correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought bsal primarily affects species with relatively keratinized skin, which means primarily salamandrids in practice. Bolitoglossa is under lots of threats generally, but I did think that Bsal was generally not one of them.
I do agree on the small population somewhere of many amphibians. I was just thinking that maybe the gastric brooding frog still exists somewhere in the wild--species have gone missing for longer.
I'm sure there are still lots of arboreal amphibians that have yet to be described, and I like to think many of them are doing better than we think.
 

taherman

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Any terrestrial salamanders have enough keratin in the skin to be affected. Several terrestrial plethodontids have shown some susceptibility in exposure trials.
 
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