Presentation in Leipzig about Madagascar

Presentation in Leipzig about Madagascar

Live lectures

Johannes Pfleiderer will be giving an illustrated lecture on Madagascar on Wednesday, June 4, 2025 in Leipzig (Saxony). The island in the Indian Ocean is a mecca for travelers interested in herpetology. Over 90% of the reptiles and amphibians found here are endemic – they are found nowhere else in the world. Among the endemics are not only many chameleons, but also the well-known colorful frogs with their many different representatives.

Johannes Pfleiderer On the way to Mantella & Co. – Zoological travel impressions from Madagascar [German]
DGHT city group Leipzig
Restaurant Neumann
Strelitzer Straße 1
04157 Leipzig
Start at 7 p.m.

Invasive plant kills chameleons

Invasive plant kills chameleons

Beobachtungen

An interesting observation was made by a Madagascar traveler and his guide last year: in Ranomafana in the southern highlands of the island, he observed Calumma oshaughnessyi juveniles twice becoming entangled in an invasive plant and apparently dying as a result. The authors suspect that the animals were unable to free themselves from the small, fine barbs of the plant and may have starved to death as a result.

The plant in question is the Spanish clover (Desmodium uncinatum), which has already spread worldwide. It is a good fodder plant for cattle, which has a high symbolic value in Madagascar. However, there are case reports from India and Australia of bats and other small mammals becoming entangled in the Velcro-like plant stems and dying.

Natural History Notes: Calumma oshaughnessyi
Michael Nash, Patrick Adriamihaja
Herpetological Review 55(3), 2024
DOI: not available

Photo: from the publication mentioned

Conference report 2025

Conference report 2025

Conference reports

From 16 to 18 May 2025, the annual meeting of the AG Chameleons took place once again in Boppard am Rhein. Traditionally, the chameleon friends ‘Diverso’, who had already arrived on Friday, met in the Rheinallee for a cosy and very tasty dinner. An exchange of experiences and many discussions about, with and around chameleons heralded the start of the conference.

Saturday morning began with the first remote lecture directly from Berlin in front of around 35 conference participants. Sophie Obermeier reported on the expert training courses offered by the VDA/DGHT Expert Training Centre East. There, interested parties can complete both the certificate of competence according to §2 TschG and that according to §11 for commercial and – attention, this also applies to many private owners – commercial owners. Sophie also explained why every chameleon keeper should obtain a certificate of competence – even if it is not yet compulsory in Germany. A training course focussing solely on chameleons is currently being planned. Now that the technology is working perfectly after a few teething problems, there are already initial thoughts about using this option at future annual conferences to allow speakers to speak who are unable to attend in person due to physical distance.

Falk Eckhardt then presented his keeping of Trioceros serratus. The animals – especially the females – are visually difficult to distinguish from Trioceros peretti and Triocecros wiedersheimi. Falk had taken over a group from another keeper and also bred them. He explained how they are kept in gauze enclosures with cork walls on two sides and discussed egg laying and successful incubation of the eggs. As the species’ country of origin, Cameroon, has not allowed chameleon exports for years, the terrarium population of Trioceros serratus is unfortunately not particularly large at present. A lack of females in particular makes the long-term conservation of the species in German terrariums rather unlikely at present. Anyone keeping animals of this species, including individuals, should definitely contact Falk so that any individual animals that still exist can be reunited.

 

After the lunch break, the programme continued with a richly illustrated travelogue by Gerd Fritzsche. He has already visited the KwaZulu-Natal region in eastern South Africa twice. His ‘bucket list’ on the last trip included various dwarf chameleon species, including Bradypodion melanocephalum, Bradypodion setaroi, Bradypodion thamnobates, Bradypodion caeroleogula and Bradypodiondracomontanum. From Durban we travelled by car to St. Lucia and back to the famous Drakensberg and Karkloof. The odd mamba was removed from huts and houses by his local guide, who specialises in snakes. Hippos and giraffes were also on the itinerary ‘as accessories’ – even though the diverse dwarf chameleons were the main target of the trip.

We then returned to herpetoculture with the presentation by Jean-Dominique Dufraine. He has been keeping carpet chameleons (Furcifer lateralis) for some time now, a small but all the more colourful species from the highlands of Madagascar. Jean-Dominique hopes to find a small group of keepers who would like to keep and breed Furcifer lateralis on a long-term basis. He is particularly interested in exchanging experiences on special, species-specific issues such as ‘egg throwing’, for which Furcifer lateralis is well known. Jean-Dominique reports the experience of the breeder of his animals that the chameleons buried eggs in the sand when the light from a lamp reached the bottom of the terrarium. Several clutches are now in the incubator. There were other interested parties on site who might want to keep the species again or for the first time.

 

The photo competition was once again divided into two categories this year. Marko von der Osten-Ellinghaus won first place in the nature photography category with his photo of an amazingly colourful, mating Furcifer rhinoceratus male on Madagascar. Second place went to Markus Bartels with a photo of a Calumma parsonii parsonii of the colour variant ‘green giant’, taken on the Masoala Peninsula in Madagascar. Gerd Fritzsche took third place with his Bradypodion setaroi from St Lucia, South Africa. Gerd won again in the terrarium category, but this time in first place, with a very nice Bradypodion damaranum. Benni Ludwig took second place with a Parsons chameleon. Third place was drawn by lot among several participants due to a tie – Jean-Dominique Dufraine won the race with a carpet chameleon. The two first place winners each received a €50 voucher from Chimaira. The second and third places received vouchers worth €30 and €20 respectively from QB Insects and Der Terraristikladen. The latter were fully sponsored for the photo competition, for which we would like to express our sincere thanks. In addition, each winner received one of the conference collector’s mugs, which are designed by Caro Vierbücher and change chameleon species every year – depending on the winning motif of the previous year’s photo competition.

The lecture part ended on Saturday with the general meeting. In her annual report, WG spokesperson Dr Alex Negro presented what the management team had achieved over the past 24 months. These included the 120-page CHAMAELEO 49 as well as two flyers for member recruitment and advertising the breeding statistics. Social media and the lively newsletter were also continued. The offspring statistics, which have been advertised intensively since 2022, were able to record the first reports for 2024 for the first time in almost 10 years. After Tim Vierbücher resigned as treasurer, Alex Negro also provisionally took over his role. She therefore also outlined the current financial situation of AG Chamäleon. The 50th anniversary edition of CHAMAELEO is on the agenda for the coming year. In addition, a competition is planned to modernise the AG Chameleon logo, which is now over 30 years old.

As expected, the new elections were quick and straightforward: the management team was confirmed in its current composition. The team of spokesperson and – new, also treasurer – Alex Negro and the assessors Jan-Benedikt Glaw, Monique Bartsch, Anne Stemper, Benjamin Ludwig and Svea Brüne is now completed by Lars Dwinger. Saturday evening ended with a pizza dinner.

 

Sunday started with a presentation on the current state of chameleon medicine by vet Alex Negro. She reported that there has been an enormous increase in knowledge, especially in the last ten years. Whereas in the early 1990s, when the AG Chameleons was founded, there were only a few vets who looked at reptiles at all, today there are not only over 120 reptile experts on the AG ARK list, but also reference values for a variety of diagnostics such as blood chemistry, blood counts, ultrasound, X-rays and even computer tomography just for chameleons. Various case reports from around the world complemented the lecture.

This was followed by a more practical and richly illustrated presentation: Markus Bartels and Lars Dwinger reported on their trip to Madagascar in April this year. They spent a whole week in the mountain rainforest of Marojejy in north-eastern Madagascar to find, document and – thanks to permits – collect undescribed species together with the Tanalahorizon team and chameleon researcher Dr Frank Glaw. Following this sweaty but very successful chameleon expedition, they travelled to the lowland rainforest of Bobangira directly on the Indian Ocean. New discoveries awaited them there too – and a rather arduous tractor journey.

 

Finally, there were some great donations to the AG: Jutta Dwinger donated the proceeds from the hand-sewn bags she sold, totalling € 175. Caro Vierbücher also donated her proceeds from the sale of hand-painted porcelain to the AG Chameleons, another € 184. Many thanks to both of them! A big thank you also goes to all the speakers for their interesting and varied contributions and to the helpers in the background who made the conference a success. And finally, we would like to thank Peter Sound for organising the venue.

See you in Hanover in 2026!

 

Tagungsprogramm 2025

  Freitag, 16. Mai 2025
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19:00 Anreise und gemütliches Abendessen
Diverso, Rheinallee 47a, 56154 Boppard
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  Samstag, 17. Mai 2025
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09:30 Eintreffen am Tagungsort: Altes Rathaus, Marktplatz, 56154 Boppard
09:45 Begrüßung und Tagungsbeginn
10:00 Sophie Obermaier: Sachkundenachweis für Chamäleonhalter in Deutschland
11:00 Falk Eckhardt: Haltung und Nachzucht von Trioceros serratus
12:00 Mittagspause
14:00 Gerd Fritzsche: Streifzug durch die Provinz KwaZulu-Natal in Südafrika
15:00 Jean-Dominique Dufraine: Back to the roots – Teppichchamäleons
16:00 Kaffeepause
16:30 Fotowettbewerb
17:00 Mitgliederversammlung mit Neuwahlen
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  Sonntag, 18. Mai 2025
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09:45 Eintreffen am Tagungsort
10:00 Alex Negro: Neues, Skurilles und Interessantes aus der Chamäleonmedizin
11:00 Lars Dwinger, Markus Bartels: Der Gipfel von Marojejy und der Galeriewald von Bobangira – zwei nahezu unerforschte Chamäleonhabitate auf Madagaskar
12:00 Verabschiedung
Eagle owl captures chameleon

Eagle owl captures chameleon

Beobachtungen Science

The eagle owl (Bubo bubo) is the largest native owl in Europe and has a large range that extends as far as Greece. It is not only very adaptable in terms of the habitat it uses, but also in terms of its prey. Known and common prey in the Mediterranean region include small to medium-sized mammals and other smaller birds. Ampihibians, reptiles, fish and invertebrates such as insects are also preyed upon, but have always been considered more of a stopgap, especially in areas of Greece where there is a lack of larger prey.

Greek authors recently made a very special observation on the prey spectrum of the owl species in the area around Pylos in the western Peloponnese. In July 2024, the authors observed an eagle owl hunting in the early morning. To their surprise, it preyed on a Chamaeleo africanus. This is the first published observation of an eagle owl preying on a chameleon. Further research on this would be desirable, as there is a general lack of data on the prey spectrum of eagle owls in the Peloponnese.

An exceptionally rare predation on a chameleon species (Squamata: Chamaeleonidae) by a Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Aves: Strigidae)
Apostolos Christopoulos, Luca Cornacchia, Christos Kotselis, Yiannis G. Zevgolis
Diversity 17, 2025: 333
DOI: 10.3390/d17050333

Photo: from the publication mentioned

International Chameleon Day

International Chameleon Day

Internationaler Chamäleontag

International Chameleon Day is taking place worldwide for the second time! Wildlife Madagascar proclaimed 9 May last year. And the Chameleons Working Group is of course taking part. Incidentally, we have a whole chameleon weekend just one week later: Namely the annual conference of the AG Chameleons, which this year takes place in the UNESCO World Heritage Site Middle Rhine Valley. Come and visit us! A whole weekend among chameleon friends is sure to be good!

What have you prepared for today?

#show your colors #internationalchameleonday #chameleonday #chameleondayMay9

Madagascar giant chameleon eats carpet chameleon

Madagascar giant chameleon eats carpet chameleon

Beobachtungen Science

Three authors report an interesting observation from the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo. Near Akamasoa, they observed a male Furcifer oustaleti in the process of devouring another chameleon. The animal had not been observed hunting. The victim, presumably a carpet chameleon (Furcifer lateralis), was completely devoured within a few minutes.

The observation is one of a few exciting sightings of relatively large chameleons that at first glance appear to eat ‘too large’ prey. However, this does not seem to happen very often, as the few existing observations are spread over several decades. It is interesting that the new observation was made in the dry season, when the insect density is significantly lower compared to the rainy season.

Predation on Furcifer sp. by Oustalet’s Chameleon, Furcifer oustaleti (Mocquard, 1894), in the Central Highlands of Madagascar
Angelinah René de Roland, Duvivier Razarazafy, Séraphin Fabrice
Herpetology Notes 18: 305-306.
DOI: not available

Photo: from the publication mentioned

Scientists discover second ‘super muscle’ in chameleon tongues

Scientists discover second ‘super muscle’ in chameleon tongues

Science

Scientists have been investigating how chameleons’ tongues can shoot out of their mouths to such an extreme length for as long as anyone can remember. US biologists have now been able to solve another piece of the chameleon tongue puzzle.

In the study, experiments were carried out on 15 Veiled chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus). All 15 animals were first anaesthetised using overdosed gas anaesthesia and then killed by decapitation. The four tongue muscles were then dissected out and clamped in measuring devices. The muscles were stimulated with an electric current and the passive/active forces and various muscle lengths were measured. A series of calculations were then carried out and muscles were examined histologically. In addition, embryos previously obtained from eggs were analysed immunohistochemically to determine whether the tongue muscles develop from the same or two different muscle systems.

The results of the study are very interesting and focus primarily on the so-called sarcomeres of the muscles. A sarcomere is the smallest contractile unit of the muscle – i.e. the part that is responsible for the expansion and contraction of the muscles. At both ends of each sarcomere are the so-called intermediate discs (German “Zwischenscheibe”), abbreviated as Z-discs. Transverse striated muscles, i.e. the muscles that move the arms, legs and trunk of a vertebrate, can shorten to about half their resting length. In chameleons, however, there is a very special type of muscle, the so-called supercontracting muscle. By definition, this is a striated muscle that is able to shorten to less than half its resting length. The rectractor of the tongue, the hyoglossus muscle, is just such a muscle. In this muscle, perforated Z-discs on the sarcomeres ensure that it can stretch far better than normal striated muscles.

In the present study, it was found that a second supercontracting muscle is involved in the tongue shot: the sternohyoid superficialis muscle. In its counterpart, the sternohyoid profundus muscle, surprisingly, no perforated Z-discs could be detected at the sarcomeres. However, its length-tension ratio corresponded to the two supercontracting tongue muscles. This could be compensated for by the very broad attachment of the muscle to the hyoid bone. During tongue shooting, these areas of the hyoid bone are rapidly rotated, which could mechanically alter the sarcomeres.

Using immunohistochemistry, the biologists were also able to show in chameleon embryos that the two muscles develop from different origins, which is consistent with the different sarcomeres. Both the hyoglossus muscle and the sternohyoid muscles form a muscular unit, with one of the muscles even extending to the sternum. This means that the maximum length of the chameleon tongue when shooting is not only made possible by the special properties of the tongue muscles, but also by the overall length of the muscular unit. No other vertebrate in the world has ever been found to have two supercontracting muscles.

Feats of supercontractile strength: functional convergence of supercontracting muscle properties among hyoid musculature in chameleons
Nikole G. Schneider, Nicholas A. Henchal, Raul E. Diaz Jr., Christopher V. Anderson
Proceedings B of Royal Society Publishing, 2025
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2025.0078

Figure: Schematic representation of the tongue muscles and hyoid bone in the Veiled chameleon from the aforementioned publication

Furcifer verrucosus discovered in the stomach of a snake

Furcifer verrucosus discovered in the stomach of a snake

Beobachtungen Science

Biologists from the University of Michigan (USA) recently made a curious discovery: they analysed a snake of the species Langaha madagascariensis that had been prepared 31 years ago using dissection and microCT. The specimen had been largely untouched in the Zoological Museum of the University of Michigan since 1994. The snake was originally collected by R.A. Nussbaum in the extreme south of Madagascar, not far from Tolagnaro. Little is known about the diet of the leaf-nosed snake, only anecdotal case reports are known. Chameleons have now been added to the list of potential prey: An adult Furcifer verrucosus was found in the stomach of the female leaf-nosed snake examined.

Natural history notes: Langaha madagascariensis (Malagasy leaf-nosed snake)
Andressa L. Viol, Hayley L. Crowell, Justin L. Lee, Tristan D. Schramer
Herpetological Review 55 (2), 2025: 223-226.
DOI: not available

Photo: Furcifer verrucosus, photographed by Nick Newberry, CC BY 4.0

Veiled chameleon distributed over 12 new counties in Florida (USA)

Veiled chameleon distributed over 12 new counties in Florida (USA)

Verbreitung Science

Introduced Veiled chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus) have been living in Florida (USA) since at least 2002. The first wild Veiled chameleons were found in Collier County, two years later animals were observed in Fort Myers in Lee County. This was followed by findings in Hendry, Miamia-Dade, Broward, St. Lucie, Palm Beach, Monroe, Alachua and Hillsborough County. Now an author in the Herpetological Review reports on 12 further populations in Florida: in Brevard, Charlotte, De Soto, Glades, Indian River, Lake, Manatee, Osceola, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota and Seminole County.

He used data from iNaturalist and EDDMapS. The author suspects that most of the new finds could be due to so-called chameleon ranching. Chameleons are deliberately released into other habitats in order to later collect and sell the resulting juveniles. But even without prior release, collecting (‘harvesting’) animals for sale has become a source of income in Florida, which has also led to the fact that distribution data on new populations is rarely published. It is now a common recreational activity in Florida to search for Veiled chameleons at night. There are even commercial operators offering guided tours.

One problem is increasingly the owners of private property who feel disturbed by ‘chameleon tourism’. The impact on native wildlife in the USA is still unclear. Theoretically, Veiled chameleons could eat smaller mammals or young birds, but there have been no reports of such incidents in Florida to date.

It seems increasingly unlikely that it will be possible to get rid of the introduced Veiled chameleons. A one-year trial in Lake Worth Beach (Palm Beach) resulted in 1043 chameleons being caught during 71 collection campaigns, but not in the elimination of the population living there.

New County Records for the Veiled Chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus) in Florida, USA
Kevin M. Enge
Herpetological Review 55 (2), 2025: 223-226.
DOI: not available

Photo: Chamaeleo calyptratus, found and photographed in Fort Myers (USA) by Andrew Durso, CC-BY

Online lecture on cognition in reptiles

Online lecture on cognition in reptiles

Live lectures Webinars

The DGHT’s digital regulars’ table was launched this year. This platform is ideal for all those who prefer to watch lectures and exchange ideas with other reptile keepers from the comfort of their sofa, but don’t necessarily want to travel far to do so. On Thursday, 27 March 2025, the topic will be ‘Cognition in reptiles’.

The term cognition refers, among other things, to perception and thought processes and the results derived from them. What do reptiles think? What can they perceive and can they draw conclusions from situations? Tobias Machts introduces the topic and shows how cognition works in reptiles. Please register by e-mail to digitaler-stammtisch@dght.de.

Tobias Machts Monkeys in scales? Cognition in reptiles [German]
15. Digitaler Stammtisch der DGHT
Start at 8 p.m.