The 'ghost of the Andes' keeps coming back — caught on camera for a third straight year

Somewhere in the rocky highlands of La Payunia, Argentina, one of the rarest cats on Earth just walked past a camera trap — again. The Andean cat, nicknamed the 'ghost of the Andes,' numbers only about 2,100 in the wild and is listed as Endangered. But the Wildlife Conservation Society's Argentina team has now documented it at the same protected area for three consecutive years — this time in a spot no one had ever recorded it before, tracked down thanks to a local farmer's detailed account. Every sighting, says researcher María José Bolgeri, confirms the cat is still there — and that conservation is working where it walks.