Inbreeding Armageddon in Yemen Chameleons

The Yemen chameleon, Chamaeleo calyptratus, came first to captivity in the 80s of the 20th century thanks to experts from Easton Germany working on some international projects in Soutern Yemen. 

It was established in captivity in the early 90s after successful breeding programs especially in the Czech Republic by Petr Nečas and Jan Hromádka. 

A great expansion to the US market was made by Ronald Tremper, who acquired the base of his breeding stock from Petr Nečas.

The original breeding stock comprised only a handful of specimens, so the genetics of the captive population was limited, and most of the breeding programs worked with inbreeding. Occasional imports of fresh blood were very limited. 

Around 2012, a melanin-less mutation appeared (partial albinism). It was immediately fixed and spread by merciless inbreeding in the hunt for commercially successful piebald chameleons.

After about 4 decades of captive breeding, it means after around 40 generations in human care, we see a disastrous state of the genetics of the captive population.

The reason for this regretful situation is to be linked first today, limited, breeding stock, from which all the captive population originated, but is nowadays also heavily driven by irresponsible inbreeding programs, creating pittiful freaks, with a disastrous phenotypes, heavily diverging from the wild appearance of the species.

The Armageddon is here.

Where will we go next?