(English) Malagasy fady may have kept new gecko from extinction

Désolé, cet article est seulement disponible en English.

A newly-described species of gecko may have been saved from extinction by local fady – traditional taboos or cultural prohibitions – connected to the few places in which it lives.

An international team of biologists has described and named the nocturnal gecko, with mottled brown skin and cream stripes, the Paragehyra tsaranoro, after discovering it in tiny patches of community-run forest in Tsaranoro, Ambatomainty and Iantaranomby, southeastern Madagascar.

The gecko’s description increases to 150 the number of recognised Malagasy gecko species.

The island has 439 native reptile species, 98 per cent of which are endemic, and around a third of which, including P. tsaranoro, are confined to areas smaller than 1,000 km sq. (390 square miles).

The small areas of forest are close to the Andringtra National Park, but are not pat of it, meaning they have been extensively fragmented and suffered decades of deforestation.

But it is very possible that what survives – and therefore what has saved the gecko itself from extinction – remains only because of fady, a Malagasy tradition of taboo or cultural prohibitions.

Because these patches of forest are guarded by Malagasy communities, and in most cases are burial or other spiritually important sites, these strong social taboos require no damage or harm be done to them, or the animals and plants native to them.

While the gecko is almost certainly an endangered species, and while deforestation continues to threaten it, and many other species of flora and fauna all over Madagascar, these Malagasy communities may well have saved it from being entirely wiped out.

We are working with Malagasy communities, to help them use their work, ideas and innovation to lift themselves from poverty and protect the Malagasy wilderness, for precisely these reasons.

Malagasy men, women and children, hold the solutions to the challenges facing them, and the lives of masses of unique animals and plants, within their arms.

Your help enables us to give them the platform from which they can overcome the challenges which face them.

Find more, here.