Chameleons Live Long! (If We Allow Them To)
Chameleons are surrounded by so many myths has almost no other animal in the world. And by expanding their presence in the captivity, new myths appear "like mushrooms after the rain"(Old Czech Saying)...
(roaches)
days into hot and moist days and dry and warm nights,
In the nature, the chameleons might live quite short lives, because they die of harsh weather, predation or diseases. Nothing like that is necessary in captivity, where we can control most of these factors.
So, the Yemen Chameleons instead of living 3 to 5 years on average and if they reach seven we applaud, they can live up to 14 or even 16 years (I had many exceeding 12, Kishan Patel from England recently reported on 14)! The Montane Chamaeleon species do not die when they are two or three years old maximum, but they can easily reach 10 years like it is the case o Kinyongia multituberculata kept by Mario Jungmann in Belgium. The life expectancy of the giant Parson's Chameleon it's up to 20 years so congratulations to Kent Manchen: he has a beautiful male reaching 15 this year!
Don't do any compromises the only way how to ethically keep Chameleon in captivity is not meaningless experimenting but listening to science and to Mother Nature and practicing the Naturalistic Chamaeleon Husbandry!
(Fotos courtesy of P. Necas, K. Patel and K. Manchen)