Tarzan Chameleon found
Christine Dell’Amore
There’s a new, scalier lord of the jungle: Tarzan the chameleon. The
13-centimeter-long Calumma tarzan was found recently in a tiny patch of
forest on the vast Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, a new study says.
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New species’ flat snout is unique among chameleons, experts say |
The new species’ name has multiple roots. For one thing, the
chameleon’s habitat—in what locals call the Tarzan Forest—is near the
village formerly known as Tarzanville, recently renamed Ambodimeloka.
For another, the team thought naming the new species after the
vine-swinging “ape man” might be a good way to “promote the conservation
of this species and of course of the forest that it’s living in,”
according to study leader Philip-Sebastian Gehring, an evolutionary
biologist at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany.
After all, “Tarzan stands for a jungle hero and fighting for
protecting the forest,” Gehring said.
Unique snout
The Tarzan chameleon was found on a 2009 night survey in eastern
Madgascar, which lies off the east coast of mainland Africa. Scientists
immediately recognized the reptile as unique from other chameleons, due
to its flat, spadelike snout, Gehring said. Though the species’ numbers
are unknown, Gehring and colleagues suspect the Tarzan chameleon will be
added to the ranks of critically endangered species on the International
Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
Tarzan forest fragmented
Rampant deforestation—which has accelerated throughout Madagascar
since a 2009 political coup—has turned the chameleon’s habitat into a
patchwork of isolated forest fragments, some no bigger than a soccer
field.
Combined, the fragments account for just about four square miles (ten
square kilometers), Gehring said.
Even so, the team found up to 60 chameleons in one fragment alone,
suggesting the new species can survive in the remaining pockets—and that
the Tarzan chameleon could still come out swinging.
- National Geographic |
