Chris Anderson
Dr. House of Chameleons
Hi Everyone,
As many of you will remember, I posted a thread late last year that went on through the first part of February trying to raise money for a research project studying thermal constraints in chameleon feeding in South Africa (https://www.chameleonforums.com/chameleon-feeding-research-support-72190/, http://www.rockethub.com/projects/4664-thermal-constraints-on-chameleon-feeding and http://www.chamaeleonidae.com/Cold_Tongues.html). The fundraising was hugely successful thanks to many of the forum members and the forum itself!
I had started organizing and applying for funding for this project two and a half years ago with Dr. Krystal Tolley from the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). Fortunately I was able to obtain some funding by last summer and started finally preparing to go and actually do the research by starting to apply for all my permits then. Unfortunately none of the remaining funding applications I had in were funded but then I found RocketHub and fortunately the fundraising there managed to raise enough to cover the rest of the expenses.
Having finally raised enough money to conduct the research and having finally received all my permits, I am currently in South Africa conducting this research and have been for a little over a week now. Last weekend, Krystal and I traveled from Cape Town in Western Cape Province to KwaZulu Natal Province to collect the first set of specimens for this research. In a matter of two nights, we were able to collect 10 adult KwaZulu Dwarf Chameleons (Bradypodion melanocephalum) from the Durban area, 10 adult Natal Midlands Dwarf Chameleons (Bradypodion thamnobates) from the Howick area, and 10 adult "Emerald" Dwarf Chameleons (Bradypodion sp.) from Kamberg Nature Reserve in the foothills of Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park. We then had them flown back to Cape Town where I am temporarily keeping them in captivity at SANBI while I collect the feeding videos at different temperatures I need from them.
By the end of next weekend, I hopefully will have gotten all the videos I need and I will be bringing these specimens back to KwaZulu Natal and release them exactly where I collected them (provided they are healthy). We made an extra effort to get permission to do this so as not to negatively impact their wild populations. I then will collect 10 Cape Dwarf Chameleons (Bradypodion pumilum) and 10 Western Dwarf Chameleons (Bradypodion occidentale) from the Cape Town area and do the same thing with them.
So far, the data collection has been going quite well. From the 30 individuals I currently have in the lab, I've gotten over 120 high-speed feeding videos at body temperatures ranging from 15-35ºC (59-95ºF) in 4.5 days of filming. I still have a lot of videos left to film before the end of next weekend but I'm hopeful I'll get enough before I need to bring them back to release them.
Because our collection trip was so quick and because I've been so busy filming since I got back, I've not yet photographed each species' habitat completely, nor have I photographed or finished photographing each species, but I though I would share some of the photos I have gotten so far.
Scorpion from Cape Town:
Natal Midlands Dwarf Chameleons (Bradypodion thamnobates) from Howick, KwaZulu Natal Province, South Africa:
As many of you will remember, I posted a thread late last year that went on through the first part of February trying to raise money for a research project studying thermal constraints in chameleon feeding in South Africa (https://www.chameleonforums.com/chameleon-feeding-research-support-72190/, http://www.rockethub.com/projects/4664-thermal-constraints-on-chameleon-feeding and http://www.chamaeleonidae.com/Cold_Tongues.html). The fundraising was hugely successful thanks to many of the forum members and the forum itself!
I had started organizing and applying for funding for this project two and a half years ago with Dr. Krystal Tolley from the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). Fortunately I was able to obtain some funding by last summer and started finally preparing to go and actually do the research by starting to apply for all my permits then. Unfortunately none of the remaining funding applications I had in were funded but then I found RocketHub and fortunately the fundraising there managed to raise enough to cover the rest of the expenses.
Having finally raised enough money to conduct the research and having finally received all my permits, I am currently in South Africa conducting this research and have been for a little over a week now. Last weekend, Krystal and I traveled from Cape Town in Western Cape Province to KwaZulu Natal Province to collect the first set of specimens for this research. In a matter of two nights, we were able to collect 10 adult KwaZulu Dwarf Chameleons (Bradypodion melanocephalum) from the Durban area, 10 adult Natal Midlands Dwarf Chameleons (Bradypodion thamnobates) from the Howick area, and 10 adult "Emerald" Dwarf Chameleons (Bradypodion sp.) from Kamberg Nature Reserve in the foothills of Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park. We then had them flown back to Cape Town where I am temporarily keeping them in captivity at SANBI while I collect the feeding videos at different temperatures I need from them.
By the end of next weekend, I hopefully will have gotten all the videos I need and I will be bringing these specimens back to KwaZulu Natal and release them exactly where I collected them (provided they are healthy). We made an extra effort to get permission to do this so as not to negatively impact their wild populations. I then will collect 10 Cape Dwarf Chameleons (Bradypodion pumilum) and 10 Western Dwarf Chameleons (Bradypodion occidentale) from the Cape Town area and do the same thing with them.
So far, the data collection has been going quite well. From the 30 individuals I currently have in the lab, I've gotten over 120 high-speed feeding videos at body temperatures ranging from 15-35ºC (59-95ºF) in 4.5 days of filming. I still have a lot of videos left to film before the end of next weekend but I'm hopeful I'll get enough before I need to bring them back to release them.
Because our collection trip was so quick and because I've been so busy filming since I got back, I've not yet photographed each species' habitat completely, nor have I photographed or finished photographing each species, but I though I would share some of the photos I have gotten so far.
Scorpion from Cape Town:
Natal Midlands Dwarf Chameleons (Bradypodion thamnobates) from Howick, KwaZulu Natal Province, South Africa:
