In 2017, the Jackson’s Climbing Salamander, aka the “golden wonder,” became the first of Re:wild’s top 25 most wanted lost species to be rediscovered. After partners at FUNDAECO hung up posters and educated park guards at the Yal Unin Yul Witz Reserve about the salamander, one of those guards happened to catch sight of one during his lunch break. The reserve itself had been established only two years before by a consortium of international groups, including Re:wild, in part to help protect the Finca Chiblac Salamander and Long-limbed Salamander, which had both been rediscovered there in 2014. After the rediscovery of Jackson’s Climbing Salamander on the edges of the reserve’s border, Re:wild helped support an expansion of the reserve.

Jackson’s Climbing Salamander had not been seen since Paul Elias discovered the species in the mid-1970s and named it after colleague Jeremy Jackson. The salamander, an elusive cloud forest species that is adept at escaping human attention, eluded a 2014 expedition that Re:wild launched with Elias and Jackson to retrace their steps four decades later.