Kwandwe Chameleon

I am pretty fortunate to have an excellent tracker in Andy Njawe. His love of the smaller things is always refreshing and he has an eye for bees and chameleons. There are very few trackers able to spot chameleons, most have never even seen one. The species most commonly encountered is the Eastern Cape Dwarf Chameleon (Bradypodion ventrale). These little guys climb onto the end of yellow pomegranate (Rhigozum obovatum) bushes to roost at night and that’s where we find them. Their eyes don’t reflect at night because they are sleeping and they are very little, averaging around 6cm when stretched out, although they are one of the bigger dwarf chameleons, reaching 15cm. How Andy spots them, I don’t know. The name “chameleon” derives from the Greek khamailion, khamai meaning on the ground or dwarf and leon meaning lion. They are a great example of the amazing littler things to be found if only you take the time to look around. Andy has so far spotted 42 chameleons, and thanks to him, I’m on 26. Thanks to David and Frances Henderson for the photo they took when we were lucky enough to spot one the other day.

Posted: Kwandwe by Toast Seagers, Date: 12 April 2008