A legendary, ultra-rare jaguar was spotted in the wild for the first time in a decade, according to a wild cat conservation in South America.
The so-called “cloud jaguar” — a high-altitude subspecies so elusive it borders on myth— was captured on a camera trap prowling Honduras’ Sierra del Merendón mountain range on Feb. 6, conservation organization Panthera announced last week.
The lone young male was caught on film in what the organization is calling the first confirmed sighting in the range in 10 years.
The spotting is being hailed as a major win for conservationists who have spent years rebuilding an ecosystem ravaged by deforestation and poaching.
Honduras lost nearly 20% of its tree cover, equal to about 3.7 million acres — about the size of Connecticut — between 2001 and 2024 alone, with agriculture and grazing land driving most of the destruction, according to CNN.
Jaguars, meanwhile, have lost nearly half their historic range across the Americas.
“Deforestation and poaching are the biggest threats, and we have been working to tackle both,” Panthera Director Franklin Castañeda, who captured the images of the jaguar, told the outlet.
Panthera said that poaching is down, and now the cats are coming back.
Protected since 1987, the mountainous cloud forest has seen a surge in conservation activity in recent years with increased ranger patrols, hidden acoustic monitors, camera trap networks, and a program to reintroduce prey species like deer and peccaries that poachers had stripped from the landscape.
“It seems we are seeing a recovery in large cats in general,” Castañeda told CNN.
Pumas were also detected in the range for the first time after nearly 20 years in 2021. Ocelots, jaguarundis and margays have since been documented as well — meaning with the cloud jaguar’s most recent sighting this month — the Merendón now hosts all five wild cat species known to exist in Honduras.
The Honduran government has thrown its weight behind the effort, deploying 8,000 military troops under its Zero Deforestation Plan 2029 to crack down on illegal logging and agricultural encroachment, while committing to restoring over 3.2 million acres of forest by the decade’s end.
But experts said the jaguar won’t be sticking around for long.
Castañeda said the big cat was likely passing through Honduras and Guatemala on the hunt for females.
Honduras’ jaguar population is razor thin — just 10 to 18 animals in Jeannette Kawas National Park and 20 to 50 in Pico Bonito National Park — making free movement between territories a matter of survival for the animals, experts explained.
“Connectivity is king for the future of the jaguar,” said Dr. Allison Devlin, Panthera’s jaguar program director.
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