A Rare ‘Cloud Jaguar’ Was Spotted in Honduran Mountains for the First Time in a Decade, Representing a Win for Conservationists

By Sara Hashemi – Smithsonian Magazine

A jaguar has been recorded roaming through the Sierra del Merendón mountain range in Honduras for the first time in a decade, offering hope for the animal’s conservation and showing that protected wildlife corridors are working.

The young male—dubbed a “cloud jaguar” because it was at a high elevation—was spotted on February 6 in a forest at an altitude of about 7,200 feet, reports CNN’s Tom Page.

“Jaguar sightings at this elevation are very rare,” says Allison Devlin, director of the jaguar program at Panthera, the wild cat conservation organization that recorded the feline, in a statement to People. What’s more, the occasion marks the highest elevation at which one of these big cats has been observed, Franklin Castañeda, Panthera’s Honduras country director, tells the outlet.