Dear all,
new to this forum so hope I'm posting in the right group. I am with Kasanka Trust in Zambia, managing Kasanka National Park, and we have recently also taken on the management of Lavushi Manda National Park. On 5th I came across a highly distinct form of Variable Skink (Mabuya varia) on the high altitude (1500m+) rocks of Lavushi Manda NP. Amazingly, only some hundreds of meters in straight line, the here normal miombo morph occurs. Separation seems purely on habitat (miombo/grassland, even rocky outcrops, vs cliffs and high-altitude fairly bare rocks). Which makes me think we have separate taxa rather than morphs?
Attached pictures of the high-altitude morph from LMNP on 5 March and of a miombo one (very common here; from Kasanka NP, sorry no pics from the same area in LM NP) and the habitat where I found the high altitude one. Note the speckled lips (and head in general) and buff lateral stripes on lower body and tail of the high-altitude morph. Miombo morph: typical glossy blackish with very uniform tawny brown upperside of head.
The peak of these rocks is (apparently) 1811m alt; I've seen several presumable Variable (besides Rainbow and one Sundevall's Writhing Skink, as well as Peter's Ground Agama) up to almost the top of the formation.
Any comments on this morph (e.g. known from other sites?) highly appreciated.
cheers
Frank Willems
frank @ kasanka.com / fwls01 @ gmail.com