News & Views
Rediscovery of a lost chameleon
Featuring stories about the rare hatching of twin snakes by a UK breeder, unexpected sea turtle breeding patterns this year, new insights into the development of the crocodile lineage, beetles that cultivate fungus as food, an overlooked pterodactyl, a South America frog which may have been successfully rescued from the brink of extinction and more, starting here with the remarkable rediscovery of a chameleon that hadn’t been sighted officially for over a century.
Compiled by G. Valentine.
One of the female Voeltzkow’s chameleons. The species is named after its discoverer Alfred Voeltzkow, who was an important explorer of northwest Madagascar.
Photo courtesy Kathrin Glaw.
The stunning find of Voeltzkow’s chameleon, ranking as the sixth of Global Wildlife Conservation’s (GWC’s) ‘Top 25 Most Wanted Lost Species’ to be rediscovered, has just been announced. An expedition team’s two-week trip to northwestern Madagascar in search of this elusive species not only resulted in proving the species is still alive, but also the discovery that the females in this case are very colourful. First described in 1893, this chameleon had last been seen over a century ago, in 1913.