African Wildlife and Environment Issue 67

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

Photograph: Albert Froneman

One easy way for people to help these chameleons is to plant indigenous species. A friend of mine has turned his garden into an indigenous forest, and he is reaping the rewards. He now has a healthy population of Dwarf Chameleons, and counting over ten sleeping individuals in his garden, in one night, is not a rare occurrence. The other chameleon species that we see around Durban is the Flap-neck chameleon Chamaeleo dilepis . This is the most common and widespread species in the province. They are typically found in grassland and savannah areas, but they too are found in suburban gardens It is a large chameleon, which including their tail length, can almost reach thirty centimetres in length Unlike the cwarf chameleon species, the Flap-neck lays eggs. I once picked up a large, gravid (pregnant) female on a gravel road in an informal settlement. Some horrible humans had kicked it around, mortally wounding the poor thing. We took her to a vet to euthanaze her, and attempted to cut the eggs out and hatch them. We didn’t want to see all these lives go to waste. We cut out fifty-two eggs, an impressive number. Sadly though, they never hatched. Surprisingly, the chameleon does cause fear in some cultures. Alas, there is absolutely nothing to fear from this animal, as it can in no way harm you. Chameleons are gentle souls! Hatching season, in Durban, is usually around late January to early February. One night, we counted one

KwaZulu-Natal is the most diverse province in South Africa, rich in herpetofauna. There are eight species of chameleon found in the province, six of which are endemic to KZN, plus a species which is yet to be fully described. A group of friends and I, being based in the province, went on a mission to find and photograph all of the province’s chameleon species. It was lots of fun, and we got to explore some beautiful areas! In Durban, where we live, we have the KwaZulu dwarf chameleon Bradypodion melanocephalum living around us, and so we’ve always found them over the years. In fact, I’ve been lucky enough to find them in friends’ and families’ gardens, as well as my own. Naturally, they occur in forest areas, and in long grass on forest fringes. Of all the other species in the province, this is probably the most dull-coloured species. Still, it is cute! Unfortunately for this species, and as many Durbanites would tell you this, their numbers have been in great decline over the years. This is mostly due to domestic and feral cats, as well as habitat destruction. The decline of this species made it one of the focus species for our survey project, ‘Save Our Suburban Lizards’, focused on threatened lizard species in the Greater Durban Area. We encourage members of the public to send in photos of these chameleons in their gardens, to give us a better understanding of their current distributions and population densities.

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