The Makiling Botanic Gardens (MBG) Wildlife of the Month (WOM) for August 2024 is the Negros Forest Dragon, scientifically known as Gonocephalus sophiae (Gray, 1845) of the family Agamidae. This Negros Forest Dragon is endemic to the Philippines. It is found between 0 and 1200 m above sea level on the islands of Negros, Mindanao and Panay, and possibly on Siargao, Luzon, Samar, Palawan and the Calamian Islands and can grow up to 30 cm.
Its habitat is mainly arboreal forest obligate, having been recorded from both primary and secondary lowland forests. It favors microhabitats with young saplings, including vegetation along stream edges, at forest edges, and in forest gaps resulting from natural (and anthropogenic, where forests is allowed to regenerate) disturbance, but is expected to rely on the presence of mature forest to support source subpopulations. This wildlife mostly feeds in insects.
It has an oviparous reproduction and is laying eggs in small holes dug in the banks of forest rivers. The Negros Forest Dragon population is being threatened by habitat loss due to deforestation: principally in forest fragments in Bicol outside protected areas. The main cause of the forest disturbance is the conversion of land to agriculture for coconut and abaca plantations, though it has been recorded from regenerating forests and from small-scale, rotating plantations within forest gaps.
By: JBBalatibat, AALimpiada, MMCaña 2024