ANTANANARIVO — At the end of April, a team of researchers scouring a scarred area of spiny forest in southwestern Madagascar came across three individuals of a critically endangered chameleon species. Furcifer belalandaensis had not previously been recorded outside of a tiny, 4-square-kilometer (1.5-square-mile) area near the village of Belalanda after which it’s named, so the team was delighted to find two males and a female at a site 5 kilometers (3 miles) away, on the banks of the Fierenana River.

The research team, from the University of Mahajanga in the country’s northwest, conducted six months of fieldwork on the island’s southwest coast to gather information about the species’ distribution.

“We found the three individuals in a relatively degraded ecosystem. There are none in the intact forest,” Hajaniaina Rasoloarison, a doctoral student in conservation biology, told Mongabay.

According to the most recent assessment report, published by the IUCN in 2011, the Belalanda chameleon was known only from a tiny patch of forest on the southwest coast of the island, in badly degraded gallery forest not far from a controversial mining project, Base Toliara.

Habitat loss, mainly caused by wildfires and systematic clearing of forest for farming, poses the greatest threat to the species’ survival. “They might also be threatened by climate change. This species no longer lives in its usual places. According to predictions, global warming will push species to take refuge in niches that suit them,” Rasoloarison said.

Its already small population was under additional pressure from collection for the pet trade; exports of these chameleons were banned in 1994, but trade may have continued because of F. belalandaensis’s close resemblance to another vulnerable chameleon species, Furcifer antimena, whose trade is permitted in line with an annual quota.

Rasoloarison had been carrying out fieldwork accompanied by students studying for their master’s degrees in a program supported by a consortium including international conservation groups Fauna & Flora, BirdLife International, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Their field research is continuing with help from the community. “Finding these three individuals [at a new location] is already a good sign that the species still exists. We still need to determine its population size so that we can implement temporary conservation measures,” Rasoloarison said.

He added that captive breeding of the Belalanda chameleon is his ultimate goal, but a long road lies ahead of him. Marking out the species’ distribution and monitoring the population is essential. Rasoloarison is well-placed to carry this out because he’s also responsible for updating the management plan for the PK32-Ranobe protected area where the team found the chameleons in April.

Ranobe is a biodiversity hotspot that also harbors eight species of lemur, including four vulnerable species. The Base Toliara mineral sands mine plans to build a road nearby that conservationists fear will affect the protected area.

The site where the research team found F. belalandaesis in April will likely be reclassified as a core area of PK32-Ranobe, and Rasoloarison said he hopes it will also help accelerate the development of ecotourism for the benefit of the community. “According to our research, this vertebrate is one of the most popular species among the region’s international visitors,” he said.

“Another big problem is when the mine takes precedence over biodiversity, it’s a challenge, especially with the Trump administration [in the U.S.] turning its back on the environment,” Nirhy Rabibisoa, a herpetologist at the University of Mahajanga and Rasoloarison’s research director, told Mongabay in a text message. USAID note?

Of the 234 known species of chameleons around the world, 98 are found only in Madagascar. Nearly half of these are threatened, according to the NGO Caméléon Madagascar. The discovery of the Belalanda chameleon at a new site underscores how the loss of forests anywhere poses a a threat to vulnerable species around the world.

Banner image: A female Fulcifer belalandaensis. Image courtesy of Hajaniaina Rasoloarison.

A version of this story was first published here in French on May 12, 2025.

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