First Cloud Jaguar Sighting in Honduras in a Decade

A cloud jaguar has been spotted in Honduras's Sierra del Merendón mountain range for the first time in ten years, captured by a camera trap at approximately 2,200 meters above sea level. The sighting was documented by Panthera, a wild cat conservation organization, which has deployed 20 camera traps, acoustic sensors, anti-poaching patrols, and reintroduced prey species like iguanas and peccaries. The jaguar, believed to be a young male nomad traveling between Honduras and Guatemala, was filmed in a foggy jungle forest. Franklin Castañeda, Panthera's Honduras country director, told La Prensa that without the camera, the jaguar's passage would have gone unnoticed. Jaguars have lost 25% of their adult population across the Americas from 1995 to 2016 due to habitat loss and illegal hunting, and are listed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List. An estimated 300 to 700 jaguars may live in Honduras, though numbers are based on calculations. The sighting highlights the importance of conservation projects in maintaining connectivity corridors between jaguar groups.