The Transvaal dwarf chameleon (''Bradypodion transvaalense'') is a

chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (Family (biology), family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 200 species described as of June 2015. The members of this Family (biology), family are best known for ...

native to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, where it is found in forested areas of

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

and

Limpopo Limpopo () is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a ...

provinces. It is also known as the Wolkberg dwarf chameleon, after the

Wolkberg The Wolkberg is a mountain range in Tzaneen, Limpopo Province, South Africa. It is a northern termination and a subrange of the Drakensberg mountain range which lines up from Eastern Cape, Lesotho, Kwazulu Natal and Mpumalanga. At 2200 m ( ...

range.

Description

They can be distinguished from their relatives in the genus by their bright colouration, with reds and oranges. They are highly territorial and relatively aggressive towards one another.

Varieties and relatives

In 2003, an ecological impact study near the village of

Roossenekal Roossenekal is a town in Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Village on the western slopes of the Steenkampsberg, 95 km north-east of Middelburg. It was proclaimed in January 1886 and named after t ...

, conducted by BSc Honours students (Centre for Wildlife Management at

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria (, ) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and ''de facto'' capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 as the Pretoria campus of the Johan ...

) found a new variety of this dwarf chameleon. DNA research from samples collected by R.P. Zoer at the

Transvaal Museum The Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, formerly the Transvaal Museum, is a natural history museum situated in Pretoria, South Africa. It is located on Paul Kruger Street, between Visagie and Minnaar Streets, opposite the Pretoria City ...

(Pretoria) revealed that it is a new variety from the

Sekhukhuneland Sekhukhuneland or Sekukuniland () is a natural region in north-east South Africa, located in the historical Transvaal zone, former Transvaal Province, also known as Bopedi (meaning “land of Bapedi”). The region is named after the 19th-century ...

region (''Bradypodion transvaalense var. sekhukhunii)''. A related species found in Ngome Forest,

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

, is known as the Ngome dwarf chameleon (''B. ngomeense'').

References

* Tolley, K. and Burger, M. 2007. Chameleons of Southern Africa. .

External links

Search for Distribution of ''Bradypodion transvaalense''
Bradypodion Reptiles described in 1930 Taxa named by Vivian Frederick Maynard FitzSimons {{chameleon-stub