The rarest chameleons were first discovered in the early 1990s.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LILONGWE — Scientists have discovered one of the chameleon rarest in the world. This animal survived to live after fear of extinction since its initial discovery in the 1990s. Fears of extinction arose due to massive deforestation.
Researchers found a population of Chapman’s dwarf chameleon (Rhampholeon chapmanorum) which survives in small patches of rainforest in the southern Republic of Malawi, in Southeast Africa. Quoted from the page Live Science, Tuesday (3/8), a team of researchers from the South African National Institute of Biodiversity (SANBI) and the Malawi Museum made the discovery in 2016. They saw the first chameleon at the edge of the forest.
“When we found it, we got goosebumps and started jumping up and down,” lead author Krystal Tolley, a herpetologist with SANBI and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, said in a statement.
“We don’t know if we’ll get any more, but once we get into the forest, there’s a lot, although I don’t know how long it will last,” he said.
Chapman’s dwarf chameleon grows only 2.2 inches (5.5 centimeters) long and walks on the forest floor. They camouflage themselves by matching dead leaf patterns.
They were first discovered in the dwindling rainforest of the Malawi Hills in 1992 and were later released into forest apart 59 miles (95 kilometers) away near Mikundi, also in Malawi, to increase their chances of survival, the statement said.
The team compared modern satellite imagery of the Malawi Hills forest with those taken in the 1980s and estimated that the forest had been reduced by up to 80 percent. The researchers identified areas where chameleons could still live and surveyed them by walking along forest trails at night with torches when they were easier to spot.
They found 17 adult chameleons in two forest patches in the Malawi Hills, and 21 adults and 11 juveniles in one plot near Mikundi. More chameleons may exist in other patches of forest that the team was not able to survey, according to the study.
The researchers took small tissue samples from the tails of some adult chameleons, before placing the chameleons back where they found them, and analyzing their DNA. The genetic sequences of the chameleons from the three forest patches were very different, indicating that the chameleons became isolated in their forest patches and were unable to travel between them to reproduce and share genes.
“Forest loss requires urgent attention before this species reaches a point of no return. Urgent conservation action is needed, including halting forest destruction and habitat restoration to promote connectivity.”
Most of Malawi’s Hills forest has been cleared and converted to agriculture. The team is calling for a comprehensive action plan to conserve endangered chameleons so they don’t become extinct.
The team published its findings on Monday, August 2, 2021 in the journal Oryx-The International Journal of Conservation.
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