Chameleon History

[JaCoCham]

Does anyone know anything about the history of chameleon keeping/when people starting keeping chameleons?
Just curious.

 

[Andrew1283]

Madagascar was colonized by the French in the 1800’s so I’m sure some chameleons were brought back to Europe as a curiosity. I can’t imagine how they would have survived the journey though. Most likely died of starvation, stress, and heat deprivation. But the natives very well could have kept some chameleons as pets! They probably ate them too. I know there are stories about chameleons being burned in rituals.

 

[kinyonga]

There were many superstitions about chameleons in the lands they came from…so IMHO it’s not likely many people kept them as pets…
https://www.kapama.com/rangerblog/the-stories-behind-chameleons-in-african-culture-and-folk-tales/


As @Andrew1283 said people who went to the chameleons’ native lands likely were fascinated by them and tried to take some home.

There were a few people studying them in the 1800’s. You might find this interesting…
http://www.anthonyherrel.fr/publications/Tolley & Herrel 2013 Chameleon Book.pdf

I started keeping them in the 80’s as did a few other people on here…but they were being kept in Europe and other places before Instarted keeping them.

The C.I.N. was the first regular publication I know of that people could learn about them from.
IMHO…ADCHAM was the first good forum where people learned about how others were keeping them. You might be able to find the actual forum using the Way Back Machine….but here’s the remnants of the website…
https://www.adcham.com/
The Chameleon News e-zine was another good source of information in that time….
http://www.chameleonnews.com/Home.html

You might want to see this…
https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-87-history-of-veiled-chameleons-in-captivity/

I‘m sure this isn’t the answer you were looking for. I’ll see what else I can find.

 

[JaCoCham]

Madagascar was colonized by the French in the 1800’s so I’m sure some chameleons were brought back to Europe as a curiosity. I can’t imagine how they would have survived the journey though. Most likely died of starvation, stress, and heat deprivation. But the natives very well could have kept some chameleons as pets! They probably ate them too. I know there are stories about chameleons being burned in rituals.

Very interesting. Thanks for the reply.

 

[JaCoCham]

There were many superstitions about chameleons in the lands they came from…so IMHO it’s not likely many people kept them as pets…
https://www.kapama.com/rangerblog/the-stories-behind-chameleons-in-african-culture-and-folk-tales/


As @Andrew1283 said people who went to the chameleons’ native lands likely were fascinated by them and tried to take some home.

There were a few people studying them in the 1800’s. You might find this interesting…
http://www.anthonyherrel.fr/publications/Tolley & Herrel 2013 Chameleon Book.pdf

I started keeping them in the 80’s as did a few other people on here…but they were being kept in Europe and other places before Instarted keeping them.

The C.I.N. was the first regular publication I know of that people could learn about them from.
IMHO…ADCHAM was the first good forum where people learned about how others were keeping them. You might be able to find the actual forum using the Way Back Machine….but here’s the remnants of the website…
https://www.adcham.com/
The Chameleon News e-zine was another good source of information in that time….
http://www.chameleonnews.com/Home.html

You might want to see this…
https://www.chameleonbreeder.com/podcast/ep-87-history-of-veiled-chameleons-in-captivity/

I‘m sure this isn’t the answer you were looking for. I’ll see what else I can find.

Cool. Thanks for the resources.

 

[elizaann2]

Very interesting. Thanks for the reply.

I also enjoyed this. The 300 page document I’ll have to read in chunks but I’ve enjoyed it so far.

Also the e_zine is awesome