Comb chameleon

Comb chameleon

We are delighted that Doris Koppisch and Rudolf Specht have taken on the sponsorship of a pair of crested chameleons (Trioceros cristatus).

When excited, for example during mating, crested chameleons take on a striking colour: While the slightly larger female "dresses" in bright shades of green, the male stands out with its reddish net pattern on the body and the pronounced red stripes on the throat pouch.

The crested chameleon belongs to a group of species that evolved in the forests of the western Congo Basin. In several of the related species, the males have horns on their snout. However, the eponymous dorsal crest, which consists of a seam of skin supported by vertebral processes, is not as high in any of the other species as in the crested chameleon.

The species inhabits the lowland rainforests from eastern Nigeria via Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to the south of the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo. The animals prefer to live in the lower shrub layer of the rainforest. With their body-length tongue, they also "shoot" for ground insects such as ground-dwelling ground beetles, which make up a large part of their diet. In this way, the crested chameleon avoids competition with its arboreal relatives, which hunt in the higher layers of the forest.

Although the crested chameleon is not listed as an endangered species on the IUCN International Red List, like all chameleon species, trade in this species is strictly regulated by the CITES Convention (Appendix II). In addition to habitat destruction, live hunting for the international pet trade represents one of the greatest threats to the survival of the species.