Endangered
Kinyongia matschiei
Kinyongia matschiei
Kinyongia matschiei is a chameleon in the family Chamaeleonidae, recorded as Endangered and tied to Tanzania.
The chameleon
K. Matschiei is the largest species in the genus Kinyongia at up to 41.3 cm (16.3 in) in total length, although the female remains smaller than the male at up to 36.0 cm (14.2 in).
Range and habitat
This species lives only at altitudes of up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) over a total of 800 km2 (310 sq mi) of isolated Afrotemperate forest areas in the East Usambara Mountains of Tanzania. Although sometimes found in degraded habitats near forest, it is not found in fully transformed areas such as plantations. The related K. Vosseleri occurs in the same range as K. Matschiei, while K. Multituberculata is found in the West Usambaras.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Habits
A chameleon rocks, aims, and shoots the tongue. Many dwarf species live in low vegetation or leaf litter, not only in high canopy.
In crisis
Kinyongia matschiei is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Kinyongia matschiei, Wikidata item Q3197240. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
