36% Of World's Chameleon Species Face Extinction; IUCN Has Assessed Less Than Half World's Reptiles

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Chameleons are an unmistakable family of wonderfully bizarre reptiles. They sport long, shooting tongues; oddly-shaped horns or crests; and a prehensile tail like a monkey's. But, of course, chameleons are most known for their astonishing ability to change the color of their skin. Over millions of years, these Old World reptiles have used this evolutionary trait for an astonishing variety of reasons, including camouflage, complex communication, and to keep warm in the cold or vice versa. But a new update of the IUCN Red List finds that this unique group of lizards is facing a crisis that could send dozens, if not more, chameleons to extinction.

Conducted by the SSC Chameleon Specialist Group (CSG), the new update finds that over a third of the world's chameleon species are threatened with extinction. In this survey researchers have assessed almost all of the world's chameleons: 184 of the world's 200 chameleon species—or 92 percent of known species. Of these, nine species have been listed as Critically Endangered, 37 as Endangered, and 20 as Vulnerable, making a grand total of 66 threatened chameleons. If the Near Threatened category is taken into account—adding another 35 species—the percentage of chameleons in danger jumps to 55 percent.

Not only are the numbers for chameleons bleak, but they are even bleaker than those for the whole reptile family. In all, 36 percent of chameleons are currently threatened with extinction when looking at those for which there is sufficient data, but the percentage for reptiles as a whole is 19 percent. Although it must also be noted that less than half of the world's reptiles have been assessed by the IUCN.

Christopher V. Anderson with Brown University and a member of the CSG says that chameleons are so much more threatened than reptiles in general, because so many chameleon species are "range-restricted," which means that "these species are endemic to small geographic areas, often a particular habitat on a single mountain." He add that "when species are range-restricted, their risk of extinction is heightened in the face of other threats. Many of these isolated habitats are under significant pressure from anthropogenic [human] activities, which results in a large number of chameleon species being highly threatened."

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http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1124-hance-chameleon-crisis.html