introducing chams to america

that is a crazy picture. thank you for looking for it.

and thank you chris and i have heard of the red ear slider ban in florida and understand why. my next question is what are they doing to stop them? are they killing them or collecting them or what? how would you control that besides of ways we who love chameleons who not approve?
 
As far as the veiled chameleons in Hawaii are concerned, as far as I'm aware, they are killing every one they find. Approve or not, its the only real logical way to eradicate them and they shouldn't have been introduced in the first place. If you ship them to the mainland for sale (as keeping chameleons in Hawaii is illegal), you've opened up a market and there is monetary incentive to keep the population. If you just kill them, the problem is solved. In the Galapagos Islands, they're working on eradicating a number of introduced species, including goats which can be used as a food source. Rather then send the meat of killed goats to the mainland for distribution as food, however, they're allowing the meat to rot where it is shot because the government doesn't want the sentiment to move toward maintaining the feral populations as a food source. It might not seem like the nice way to do it but it's the right way to go about the goal.

Chris
 
you know it's fun to talk about and dream of having them roam around
but the truth is that they are not native and history shows that they'll damage the any native eco system.

Although I live here in southern CA USA I haven't bothered searching for the creatures
it's possible that they could make it here and breed but the range would be limited.
They would also for sure go after the local birds and such making it just
that harder for all these pressured species to survive.
 
Not only are any veileds found in Hawaii culled..it is also illegal to keep them as pets. No veileds allowed!
There is an established wild population of veileds in Florida that I thought was pretty commonly known about.
There's info online if you care to google.

-Brad
 
yea it is a dream isnt it. but what is right is right and you have to do the right thing if you like it or not. sad but true. thats why you just make your house a greenhouse so you can have specific rooms for all your little buddies and they wont get killed.
 
Will Hayward said:
ALSO in Addition to what Chris said, I know Michelle Smith has found a rather large vicious melleri in Florida as well.
Click to expand...

Really?
Wow.....I think if I had found said Meller's ....it would be coming home with me.
There's so much trouble in Florida with non-native herps...just watch an episode of animal cops miami!

-Brad
 
nightcrawler said:
yea it is a dream isnt it.
Click to expand...

It's not a dream; it's a deplorable nightmare.

If you want to see chameleons in the wild everyday, move to Madagascar. They belong only where "God/Mother Nature/Insert your deity of choice" placed them.

Anyone who releases any pet into the wild should never be allowed to have another pet...ever. Considering the problem Florida is having with burmese pythons and the "I didn't know it would get that big" mentality, I really wouldn't mind seeing their sales banned or requiring expensive permits to help weed out the idiots. It wouldn't work completely, but how many people would buy a $99 burmese if they also had to buy a $500 permit?

On the flipside of the coin, you also have idiots like the California Fish and Game who maintain a ban on domestic ferrets because they won't admit they are wrong. (There is absolutely no scientific evidence to support their ban.)

These exotic animals of ours belong in nature. If we are going to relocate them for our personal amusement, we need to be stewards of the environment both of their original homesite and their new one.

Very rarely are any "introduced species" a good idea. I can't think of any, but I'm not really up on it.
 
I got a story. i live about an hour and a half from the everglades.... not to long ago their was an anocanda eating a 6 foot gator. they had pictures online and on the news.
 
Me too

Chris Anderson said:
To answer your first question, yes, there are introduced, established populations of chameleons in Hawaii (Ch. jacksonii xantholophus & Ch. calyptratus), California (Ch. j. xantholophus) and Florida (Ch. j. xantholophus & Ch. calyptratus).

As for the rest of your questions, the release of any nonnative animal is completely illegal and dangerous to the local ecosystem. There are hundreds of examples where introduced species have been highly damaging to local ecosystems and while there are plenty where no obvious negative impacts have been shown, the risk is simply too great and some degree of competition with native species is inevitable. While I doubt a chameleon would directly cause an extinction or heavily throw off the balance of local ecosystems, it could in theory happen depending on the fragility of the ecosystem and its balance. They are trying to eliminate the introduced veiled chameleon population in Hawaii because of fears they could predate local, endangered bird species which are already suffering from loss of habitat and pressure from other introduced species. Stemming from concern over establishment of introduced species, many states have banned many species to prevent careless keepers from releasing them into local habitats (for example, it is now illegal to sell red-eared sliders in Florida for this reason). There really isn't any real positive to doing this.

Chris
Click to expand...


Hate to say, "Me too", but one of the major threats to private ownership of exotic species like chameleons are the boneheads who release them in the wild. It provides the legislature with the ammunition they need to outlaw our herps so the little old ladies who vote will feel safe at night.

Don't ever do it, and try to discourage it when you can.

Steve
 
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