ANTANANARIVO — An international team of biologists has identified a new species of gecko in small forest remnants of southeastern Madagascar. Named Paragehyra tsaranoro, the lizard is microendemic to isolated patches of community-managed forests west of Andringitra National Park, highlighting the remarkable biodiversity found there. Fieldwork to identify the tsaranoro gecko was led by Francesco Belluardo from the Department of Biosciences at the University of Molise in Italy. The team found the new gecko species in small patches of montane forest in Tsaranoro, Ambatomainty and Iantaranomby. This nocturnal and elusive gecko shows a particular preference for rocky habitats, where its mottled brown skin blends almost perfectly with the surrounding stone. Lead study author Francesco Belluardo and co-author Gonçalo Rosa handling expedition samples. Image courtesy of Javier Lobón-Rovira. The forests around these sites are highly fragmented after decades of deforestation. While Andringitra National Park protects much of the massif, it doesn’t include the western slopes, where only a few patches of forest remain. “It’s not certain that its range is limited to these areas,” said Nirhy Rabibisoa, a lecturer and researcher at Madagascar’s University of Mahajanga, who wasn’t involved in the study. “It often happens that a species is initially thought to be microendemic, but later turns up elsewhere,” he added, citing the case of Blaesodactylus antongilensis, a gecko native to the dense rainforests of northeastern Madagascar. Even so, the study’s authors argue that P. tsaranoro should be listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List — a mournful irony…This article was originally published on Mongabay