Endangered
Natal Midlands Dwarf Chameleon
Bradypodion thamnobates
The Natal Midlands dwarf chameleon is a chameleon native to woodland habitat in the inland Midlands area of the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Appearance
Its length is 7.6 centimetres (3.0 in), relatively small for its genus, and it has bulbous scales of varying colors scattered around the body. The head crest is yellow, with white skin on its throat. Males have a short orange stripe around the middle of their bodies and red-spotted eyelids, whereas females are brown with smaller helmet-like protrusions.
Range and habitat
The range of the Midlands and Gilboa Forest populations and that of the Drakensberg dwarf chameleon (B. Dracomontanum) require delimitation, as they appear to touch in eastern Lesotho and adjacent South Africa. The Drakensberg species is not closely related to the KwaZulu-Natal group, even so, and no significant gene flow between them seems to occur. The Natal Midlands dwarf chameleon is a chameleon native to woodland habitat in the inland Midlands area of the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal.
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
Natal Midlands Dwarf Chameleon 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 Natal Midlands Dwarf Chameleon, Wikidata item Q646412. 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.
