West African Humid Savannah information?

[DanSB]

Does anyone know of a good resource to find information on the West African Humid Savannah? Specifically I'm looking for climate, native plants, and insects.

This is the natural habitat of the Senegal Chameleon and I've been trying to determine best husbandry practices. It seems like this area has seasonal variation between a dry and a wet season and if this is the case I would like to investigate the possibility of that being a trigger for breeding.

There just isn't very much information other than "Care for like a Veiled Chameleon" which I'm not sure I buy... Obviously this will keep them alive but I am more concerned with getting them to really thrive.

Anything would be helpful, thank you!

 

[Dean Pulcini]

Find a city in West Africa and go to the weather channel site and put the city in the locale box either city name or zip.

 

[CNorton]

Have you read the article Kristina Francis wrote on chameleonnews.com?

 

[DanSB]

Find a city in West Africa and go to the weather channel site and put the city in the local box either city name or zip.

Ha I'm not sure there are any cities in the Savannah! I know there has to be something I'll see if I can find something, thanks for the suggestion!

Have you read the article Kristina Francis wrote on chameleonnews.com?

I have read it multiple times. As far as I can tell it is the ONLY good information on Keeping Senegals.

I really think it would be neat to find natural plants to the area they are in and use them in the enclosure. This would of course make sticking to the natural climate ranges even more important.

 

[CNorton]

I have read it multiple times. As far as I can tell it is the ONLY good information on Keeping Senegals.

I really think it would be neat to find natural plants to the area they are in and use them in the enclosure. This would of course make sticking to the natural climate ranges even more important.

To be perfectly honest with you, Senegals have given keepers a real tough time. They are so readily available via importation that it has given keepers very little inspiration to begin massive captive breeding efforts.

But if you truly are dedicated to the species and want to learn everything about their native environment, you are asking the right questions...and in the right place. Like was mentioned before, if you find some points of interest where you know Senegals can be found in great numbers, you can research that area and the environment. There are loads of articles to read on Google Scholar too.

With the species I dedicated myself to, Kinyongia matschiei, I had to dig in the dark for awhile. I finally found a man in Holland who was working with them and together we did lots of "trial and error" hunsbandry with translated correspondence.

Don't get discouraged!

 

[DanSB]

Ideally there are several species I really want to work with,

I feel like the senegals are actually quite easy to take care of, eat readily, tolerate a wide temperature and humidity range, and have wonderful personalities making them an ideal starter chameleon if you are lucky enough to find a captive bred one. The issue of course being that the majority are parasite ridden and on death's door step when they arrive.

Senegals will not likely be my focus going forward but I really want the breeding experience and I want to do my part to ensure this species will be represented in the hobby for a long time to come even if import regulations change to make it not cost effective to import inexpensive species.

 

[AllFallDown]

When I want to figure stuff like that out (For example if I am researching the native climate of a new plant or something- for example, I have been doing this for some South African species I am trying to get into cultivation here in the US), I usually start with google searching the phrase "Flora of (region of interest)"

Often that gets you not only plant data but climate data as well since they are tied together so intimately.

I would also try to generalize and search something like "Climate west african savannah" hoping that it covers multiple regions including the one you want. I also try weather websites. often they have climate data which can show trends over time.

I quickly ran that first search I mentioned and got a couple of hits on the climate and ecology- they were scientific journals though so I could not download them without paying a lot of money. Do you have access to a college campus? If nothing else, if you want I could try to download a couple of them for you when I am on campus next week.