Saving Snakes

Category: C. LIZARDS | Date: Nov 25 2007 | By: admin

It was a quiet day at the snake farm today so thought I’d share an interesting find with you. In October 2007 I took our children for their school half term to Sand Island, an old style cottage resort on Tiwi, a beach along the South Coast of Kenya. On the second afternoon my son Eric Taylor, who is six years old, came up to me and said that he had found a very interesting Chameleon.

When I looked at what he had found I was surprised because although it was a Flap-necked Chameleon Chamaeleo delepis, the only large chameleon found in the area. What was strange about this one was that it was bright orange in colour. Having never seen, or even heard of one being this colour before, I decided to try and found out why.

Eric had actually found it on a Bougainvillea bush that had orange flowers. We released the Chameleon then and there and looked for it and found it again each morning over the next three days. Each day it was the same colour and when disturbed climbed up to the top of the bush where the flowers were more orange. Imagine that! an orange chameleon. It sounds more like a tropical night club than a fact. Just goes to show we learn something new every day.

Well done Eric

Photo by Royjan Taylor

Photo by Royjan Taylor

Technorati : Chamaeleo delepis, Flap-necked Chameleon

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