Endangered
Tiger chameleon
Archaius tigris
Tiger chameleon is a chameleon in the family Chamaeleonidae — Archaius tigris, recorded as Endangered and tied to Seychelles.
Appearance
Body colour varies from inconspicuous light-grey to a bold yellow-orange, or even green or dark brown, usually with scattered black spots and a pale grey chin and throat.
With a length of just 16 cm (6.3 in), this species is relatively small for a chameleon.
Range and habitat
The tiger chameleon is endemic to the Seychelles, occurring only on the islands of Mahé, Silhouette and Praslin. Being an arboreal species, it is found in primary tropical forest, secondary forest where there is high plant diversity, and upland rural gardens, from sea level to 550 metres. It is an endangered species of chameleon, found only on the Seychelles islands of Mahé, Silhouette, Sainte Anne and Praslin.
As an island endemic with a restricted range of just three small islands, and a population thought to number only 2,000 individuals, the tiger chameleon is particularly vulnerable to changes within its habitat. On the islands of Mahé and Praslin in particular it is threatened by habitat degradation caused by introduced alien plants, such as cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum).
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
After a short warming up phase in the morning, this chameleon goes in search of insects and other small animals on that to feed. Like all chameleons, this species hunts by rapidly projecting its elongated sticky tongue at prey.
The tongue is tipped by a suction pad capable of ensnaring prey.
In crisis
Alien plant control on Praslin and habitat restoration programmes on Silhouette are being undertaken to help contain threats to this species. The main population occurs on Silhouette, where it has been suggested that forested areas containing populations should be given legal protection by being included in a new protected area.
Tiger 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 Tiger chameleon, Wikidata item Q1524555. 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.
