Leaf chameleon, Brookesia nofy, a newly named species found in Madagascar
Andorarao Rakoto Allison
A species of leaf chameleon new to science, less than half the length of a human index finger, has been discovered in a tiny corner of Madagascar’s highly endangered coastal rainforest.
Miguel Bence of the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany and his colleagues became aware of the tiny reptile after tourists posted photos of it on the internet.
Vences’ Malagasy collaborators, Andrarao Rakoto-Allison and Alida Franklin Hasiniaina, went looking for it and collected the first samples.
Leaf chameleon Burkesiais a small chameleon the color of fallen leaves that has been breaking records in recent years for its tiny body size.
Burkesia nana, For example, this species, discovered in northern Madagascar in 2021, is thought to be the world’s smallest reptile, measuring just 22 millimeters in length.
This new species is Burkesia nofi Named after a chameleon found in the Ankanini Nofi tourist site on the east coast of Madagascar, the new species is slightly larger, measuring about 33 mm in length. This is the first time the species has been found living in coastal and nearshore rainforests, which are perhaps the island’s most endangered habitat. Of their once widespread range, only about 10 percent remains.
It’s possible B. Nofi The plant has survived because the forest it grows in is part of a privately owned reserve run by a hotel, whose owners have allowed the tree to regenerate over the past 20 years. The plant was photographed in a larger nearby forest by a local journalist five years ago, but when Bence and a colleague visited two years ago, they found much of the forest had been destroyed by wildfire.
Bences says supporting ecotourism ventures that give international visitors the chance to see Madagascar’s rare chameleons and lemurs together is probably worth more than the large carbon footprint required to travel there.
“If people don’t see economic value in the little bits of (surviving coastal) forest, the forest will disappear,” he says.
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