South Africa Chameleon Feeding Research Trip

[PantherEnvy]

Amazing pics and info. Thank you.

 

[DavidBuchan]

Superb stuff there Chris Loving all the photos and just knowing that someone somewhere is doing real detailed research into Chameleons that hasn't been done before

 

[Chameleopatrick]

Chris, what sets your posts apart from many is the details. Can you tell us what the typical daytime high and low was for the area? What assortment of food items did they frequently feed on? How dense was the population in the area? What was the UVB reading at various times? Humidity rate?

The photos are very nice. Thanks for sharing.

 

[jmwhitel]

Every once in a while, I stumble across a really good thread. This is one of those.....

 

[Chris Anderson]

The occidentale have such oddly shaped bodies and such a stumpy tail, are they found relatively low to the ground?. I do like how large their gular lobes can get tho

which biome does it favor?

We found the Bradypodion occidentale in renosterveld habitat which are relatively short, woody bushes in what appear to be fairly dry areas so I would definitely say they tend to be found low to the ground.

Chris, what sets your posts apart from many is the details. Can you tell us what the typical daytime high and low was for the area? What assortment of food items did they frequently feed on? How dense was the population in the area? What was the UVB reading at various times? Humidity rate?

The photos are very nice. Thanks for sharing.

For this trip I've been mostly going to habitat at night to collect and then only briefly revisiting during the day to release the animals so I haven't been able to collect a lot of that type of data myself while I'm there. I'm instead using GIS data to characterize the habitats and I've not gone through all the layers yet to characterize the habitat of each species but will eventually.

Chris

 

[Chris Anderson]

Couple more shots from today.

Bradypodion pumilum (Cape Dwarf Chameleon), Noordhoek, Western Cape Province, South Africa:

I also had a female Bradypodion occidentale (Western Dwarf Chameleon) drop a clutch of 9 babies (and 1 slug):

Enjoy!

Chris

 

[Cainschams]

This thread is so freaking good!!!

 

[Chris Anderson]

Had another female Bradypodion occidentale (Western Dwarf Chameleon) have babies today. This female had 8 babies. I managed to get a couple shots of one of them breaking free of its egg sac:

Enjoy,

Chris

 

[okiroo]

wow! how wonderful. how will you return the babies to the wild??? i guess their sorta CH now. beautiful pics ^^

 

[Motherlode Chameleon]

Had another female Bradypodion occidentale (Western Dwarf Chameleon) have babies today. This female had 8 babies. I managed to get a couple shots of one of them breaking free of its egg sac:

Enjoy,

Chris

Wow great timing Chris! I wish there was more of that (Bradypodion births) here in the states.

 

[Chris Anderson]

wow! how wonderful. how will you return the babies to the wild??? i guess their sorta CH now. beautiful pics ^^

I have the GPS coordinates of where each animal was collected so the babies will be released to the location the mother was found. I've already returned the first group of babies (found the female having the second right after I got back from doing so) and will release the second group shortly.

Chris

 

[Jono]

Fantastic work Chris! Really happy that this sort of work is being done on our Bradypodions Have you collected any Damaranum?

Last week I flew a helicopter from Cape Town all the way up to Durban then inland to the Drakensburg and back round Lesotho on the return trip. I'm doing the same route again leaving next week so if there are any spots along the way that you would like aerial photographs of let me know and I'll mark my maps and take them as we fly past.

I would love to come and see your research (i.e. specimens ) so please let me know if it would be possible for me to stop by at some point.

Keep up the good work!

Jono Heaney
082 331 9654

 

[a2zcreatures]

Amazing stuff

Sent from my SGH-T759 using Tapatalk

 

[okiroo]

I have the GPS coordinates of where each animal was collected so the babies will be released to the location the mother was found. I've already returned the first group of babies (found the female having the second right after I got back from doing so) and will release the second group shortly.

Chris

thats gr8! cant wait for the next update ^^!

 

[Chris Anderson]

Fantastic work Chris! Really happy that this sort of work is being done on our Bradypodions Have you collected any Damaranum?

Last week I flew a helicopter from Cape Town all the way up to Durban then inland to the Drakensburg and back round Lesotho on the return trip. I'm doing the same route again leaving next week so if there are any spots along the way that you would like aerial photographs of let me know and I'll mark my maps and take them as we fly past.

I would love to come and see your research (i.e. specimens ) so please let me know if it would be possible for me to stop by at some point.

Keep up the good work!

Jono Heaney
082 331 9654

Hi Jono,

Unfortunately I didn't get to work with B. damaranum this time around but hopefully next time.

As for stopping by to see my research, I'm unfortunately finishing up everything today. In fact, I'm releasing all the rest of the animals later today and flying back to the US tonight. Perhaps next time though!

I'll definitely let you know if we need any aerial shots of the habitats, however!

Chris

 

[Jono]

No worries! Safe flight

 

[Chris Anderson]

Well, I made it back to the US over the weekend. It was a great trip and very productive!

Here are the last few photos I took on the trip.

Bradypodion pumilum (Cape Dwarf Chameleon), Noordhoek, Western Cape Province, South Africa:

Enjoy!

Chris

 

[James45]

Welcome back Chris glad you had a safe trip.

 

[Sybet]

Awesome pictures and great specimen!

 

[okiroo]

welcome back! hope you had some fun and have an interesting report for us ^^!