Rare Chameleon Believed To Be Extinct Found; Urgent Conservation Efforts Needed

South African National Biodiversity Institute experts found that one of the rarest chameleons that was thought to be extinct due to massive forest clearances was found in patches of rainforest in Malawi Hill.

As reported by Daily Mail, when the Chapman's pygmy chameleon (Rhampholeon chapmanorum) was found, the researchers urge the conservation for this rare chameleon species to preserve them from extinction.

They published their full findings in the study, titled "Clinging to Survival: Critically Endangered Chapman's pygmy chameleon (Rhampholeon chapmanorum) Persists in Shrinking Forest Patches," in the journal Oryx.

Chapman's pygmy chameleon

Chapman's pygmy chameleon was first described in 1992 by herpetologist and author Colin Tilbury in the paper titled "A New Dwarf Forest Chameleon (Sauria: Rhampholeon Günther 1874) From Malawi, Central Africa," that was published in the journal Tropical Zoology. He described it as one of the rarest chameleon species in the world.

The recent study lead author professor Krystal Tolley said that this chameleon is mostly brown and can change colors into blue and green with little dots all over their body, which scientists believe they use as a way of communicating with each other. She added that pygmy chameleons are gentle and beautiful, unlike other species that could be hysterical, hissing, and biting.

However, CNN reported that chameleons have a high extinction rate of about 15% among reptiles, in which 34% of all chameleon species are classified as threatened species, while 18% are nearly threatened. Most of these threatened species are forests specialists that can only be found in specific environments, such as the pygmy chameleon.

ALSO READ: Luminous Nose-horned Dragon Lizard Found Again For the First Time in 130 Years

Chapman's pygmy chameleon Needing Urgent Conservation

When Chapman's pygmy chameleons were first discovered in 1992, authors noted the growing deforestation in Malawi Hills. Experts released some of them into a forest patch around 59 miles (95 kilometers) north in Mikundi, Malawi, in 1998 to protect their species, CNN reported. By 2001 and 2002, Tilbury assessed their population again and found that they were still there.

However, related assessment work in 2014 did not find pygmy chameleons in the area, which led them to believe that the chameleon species must be extinct. This chameleon species is particularly intolerant of transformed areas, and they were also classified as critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

After two years, in 2016, researchers found them again in some patches of forest in Malawi. They found seven pygmy chameleons in the first forest patch, and then another ten pygmy chameleons inside a site in the southwest of the first location, and 21 more adult chameleons plus 11 young hatchlings in the third site.

Genetic analysis of the chameleons revealed that there were significant differences in their genetic structure between populations of chameleons found in different sites. This suggests that deforestation has affected the breeding ability between chameleons on neighboring patches. Experts think that the effects of deforestation on the genetic diversity of chameleons could take time to appear.

It is important to prevent chameleon species from reaching a point of no return. Therefore, experts said in a statement in EurekAlert! that urgent conservation efforts for pygmy chameleons as well as stopping forest destruction are necessary for the recovery of their habitat.