''Rhampholeon maspictus'', the Mount Mabu pygmy chameleon, is a small native species of

chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colors, bein ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the tropical rainforests atop

Mount Mabu Mount Mabu is a mountain in northern Mozambique, famous for its old-growth rain forest. Mount Mabu is approximately high and the forest covers about . While well known locally, the Mount Mabu forest and its extremely diverse wildlife were unkn ...

in Zambezia,

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. It is roughly long. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

comes from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

"mas pictus," meaning "painted male," alluding to the unusual bright colours of most males, which are often retained for long periods, even when sleeping at night. ''R. maspictus'' occupy a range of , above sea level on Mount Mabu. The species is classified as "

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

" for the small range of its distribution and its

specialization Specialization or Specialized may refer to: Academia * Academic specialization, may be a course of study or major at an academic institution or may refer to the field in which a specialist practices * Specialty (medicine), a branch of medical ...

to its

Afromontane The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions ...

forest environment, unable to persist in altered

habitats In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

. Though its forest environment is intact, the edges of the forest are experiencing pressure from

encroachment Encroachment is to advance beyond proper limits, and may refer to: * Temporal encroachment * Structural encroachment * Encroachment (gridiron football), a penalty in American and Canadian football *Encroachment by human populations on natural spa ...

due to

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

for

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

and

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

. If deforestation is to continue, ''R. maspictus'' may rapidly become " Critically Endangered," though

anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Counterintuitively, anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human im ...

threats are expected to be mitigated by local

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

efforts.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17899038 Rhampholeon Reptiles of Mozambique Endemic fauna of Mozambique Reptiles described in 2014 Taxa named by William Roy Branch Taxa named by Krystal A. Tolley