The Canopy Ledger of Ivohiboro

New fieldwork from the Ivohiboro Protected Area in southeastern Madagascar provides a clearer picture of the region's herpetofauna. The forest core covers only 8.58 km² within a larger 37.82 km² conservation zone bordered by savanna and rising from 650 to 1460 meters. It is jointly managed by local organisations and the Malagasy Ministry of Environment.

Surveys were conducted in 2016 and 2023 using vertical tree assessments on 16 and 26 trees in Ivohiboro and Analamary. Each tree was climbed from base to crown, with every encountered animal recorded and, when possible, sampled. The ground around each tree was also searched within a ten‑meter radius. Both survey years were marked by a delayed rainy season, leaving conditions drier than ideal for amphibians and reptiles. Opportunistic observations were added to the dataset.

Across all work, researchers documented 22 amphibian species and 32 reptile species. Frogs were sampled for genetic analysis, allowing molecular confirmation of several taxa. The chameleon assemblage included 

• Calumma andringitraense, 
  
• Calumma crypticum, 
  
• Calumma oshaughnessyi, 
  
• Calumma fallax, 
  
• Furcifer lateralis, and 
  
• Palleon nasus. 
  

A consistent pattern emerged: most Calumma species were found high in the canopy rather than near the ground.

These results align with the broader molecular inventory published in 2026 by Basham, Masotti, Schmeder, Vences and colleagues, which emphasised the importance of combining canopy surveys with genetic sampling to capture the full diversity of Madagascar's forest herpetofauna.