Chameleon Atlas half-way Report - 10 April 2020
Thanks Everyone for your great contributions!! In the last few days we have doubled our records of chameleons in Cape Town.
Observations before the 2019 City Nature Challenge tallied
41 Observations of 2 Species with 48 Identifiers by 65 observers
The species were
© Cape Dwarf Chameleon Bradypodion pumilum -138 observations
© Namaqua Dwarf Chameleon Bradypodion occidentale - 3 observations
Most of us are familiar with the Cape, but fewer people are aware that the Namaqua Chameleon extends within Strandveld on the West Coast south to Melkbos. and so we have two chameleons occurring naturally in the City.
We upped our game during the City Nature Challenge in 2019, when over four days & week following, we recorded
89 Observations of the Cape Dwarf Chameleon with 42 Identifiers by 62 observers.
Since then we have recorded a further
119 Observations of 2 Species with 35 Identifiers by 62 observers.
Clearly the iNat bug has bitten and Capetonians are monitoring our wildlife.
With the 2020 Covid-19 epidemic, the City of Cape Town and SANBI decided as one of the Lockdown activities to map and monitor our chameleons. This project was created on March 31 and the City issued a press release on April 8.
During Lockdown until 10 April, after two weeks of Lockdown, we have recorded:
196 Observations of 2 Species with 25 Identifiers & 99 observers
Except, that the Namaqua Chameleon is apparently not in many peoples gardens - can we please have LOTS more records from Melkbosstrand, Blouberg, and anyone living north, including Atlantis and Malmesbury!!! How far south does it extend? Does it like gardens? Please help.
© Our second species during the lockdown is a new record to Cape Town. We have an alien species! The Eastern Cape Dwarf Chameleon Bradypodion ventrale has been discovered in Hout Bay in two gardens so far. We have no idea how it has gotten here, but the most likely cause is the nursery trade with plants cultivated upcountry being shipped to Cape Town with a few chameleons on board. We would love to know how extensive it is in Hout Bay, so can everyone in the Independent Republic of Hout Bay please check their gardens and post their chameleons onto iNaturlist. We are particularly interested in how widely dispersed it is, and if it is happily coexisting with our Cape Chameleon, or if they are deadly foes. As of today, we have no records of Cape Cameleons from Hout Bay - only Eastern Chameleons!
Please help us: this is something everyone can do during lockdown - explore your gardens. People on Hout Bay: do you have Cape or Eastern Chameleons. And people on the West Coast do you have Namaqua or Cape - or both - Chameleons in your gardens.
How do we tell these apart? Examples are visible here:
(more here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/dwarf-chameleons-of-cape-town?tab=species)
Colour is not so important: these are chameleons! They change their colours: green on foliage, brown on dead bushes, black when upset, pale at night and brightly coloured sires when charming a dam.
The scales on the chin and on the casque (helmet), and the shape of the casque are the features to look at.
Of course, it is not only people in Cape Town who have been excited by this project, and the enthusiasm has spilled over into the winelands and beyond. And we have a record of another alien the Knysna Chameleon, just outside the city border- https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/27681516 . Probably the same modus operandi - spread by the plant trade. Please - if you live in Eerste River, Blue Downs, Croydon or Helderberg area, please check your gardens and record all the chameleons you can see. You may well have the Knysna Chameleon in your garden! Lots more records please ...
But where does the Cape Chameleon occur?
So far during lockdown we have no records of chameleons from
Mamre
Atlantis
Camps Bay
Hout Bay (only records of Eastern Chameleons so far)
Goodwood
Parow
Elsies River
Blue Downs
Kayelitsha
These are the more denser or more recent suburbs, and gardens are smaller and younger. Does that preclude chameleons being present?
But we need lots more data from all suburbs - from everywhere.
At present the best recorded suburbs are:
Grassy Park, Bergvliet, Mowbray, Parklands, Durbanville and Somerset West.
Look at the map here: is your garden on the map?
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/dwarf-chameleons-of-cape-town?tab=observations&subtab=map
But we need more data from everywhere.
The keenest participants have helped by filling out our data fields using the Chameleons of Cape Town Atlas Project.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/chameleons-of-cape-town-atlas
The results so far are:
115 observations have been submitted by 53 participants (for lockdown we can assume about a participant per garden).
Garden suitability (How suitable is your garden for chameleons?)
- 81: Trees, shrubs & lawn
- 27: Shrubs only
- 3: Trees & lawn
- 2: Shrubs & lawn
0: Lawn only
( n.a. 11)
So by far the majority of gardens had the three most common plant elements, but chameleons are found in any garden with more than a lawn.
Pets in garden (a summary of pets visiting the garden)
- 36: dogs
- 29: none
- 27: cats
- 17: dogs & cats
4: none but neighbours have cats
(n.a. 10)
So - dogs are cool for chameleons, but they can survive very well in gardens with cats.
Number of chameleons:
about
~ 70 recorded 1 chameleon;
~ 30 2-5 chameleons
~ 10 6-10 chameleons
~ 10 recorded more than 10 chameleons (two recorded 30 chameleons).
~ None recorded no chameleons: - - To record NO chameleons after you have looked carefully add the "Chameleons of Cape Town Atlas" project to an observation of a plant and fill in all the fields.
Most gardens only have a few. But following breeding, gardens can be full of baby chameleons (with 30 recorded!).
It is premature to come to conclusions yet. We need lots more data please. If you have a garden, then please look for chameleons and record them for the City of Cape Town Chameleon Atlas.
Many thanks to everyone who has participated so far.
Please remember to join the project and you will be notified of news updates when they are posted.
Comments
Can you sex a chameleon?
Yes, but it is not very easy, unless you have both sexes side by side.
Dams have the tails smooth to the vent.
Sires have a slight bulge beneath the tail just behind the vent, where the hemipenes are stored. These are most obvious during the breeding season.
Pugs cannot be sexed until they reach maturity. In fact, they usually cannot be reliably identified until they reach maturity.
We have always had many chameleons in our garden in Paarl, since we moved here in 1997. We easily spotted up to 30 in breeding seasons. Some how the have all disappeared round about 2012. There where no major changes to our very bushy garden or any obvious reasons for this. We do have the occasional owl and falcon. I would usually find any dead or hurt chameleons if a cat caught it, but there where no visible dead ones, either. I do not use pesticides apart from Rose care on the roses.
Is this a common problem/ observation?
Regards
Adri
You are the first to mention a drastic decline. But it might just have been a breeding Jannie or a visiting snake. Alternatively Chameleon-flu (well not really, but perhaps some disease?). Alternatively, perhaps your neighbour or a nearby farm was careless with some pesticide.
But I would have expected them to be back by now. Any chance of perhaps writing a little query in the local koerant, and asking everyone in Paarl to please record their chameleons? That will help us to determine if it is very local, or perhaps a larger or more worrying decline. It is utterly amazing how much data, and how useful it is, that local citizen scientists can collect. And the fascinating questions that emerge ....
I should have done that long time ago, but I was also hoping they will return. It might still be worth a try, in our local news paper and on social media groups in Paarl. I would like to know to which pesticides they are vulnerable. We have had a few snakes, but a disease or poison seems more likely.
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