Transkei Dwarf Chameleon – Bradypodion caffer
Size:
A medium sized chameleon which often reaches 16 cm head to tail.
Colour:
Adult males are a brown/pale greenish with two emerald green blotches along the side of the body, tubercles along body yellow with interstitial skin being blackish or off-white. While the red dorsal spines are short, broad and triangular in shape along the spine and the first third of the tail. Adult females are brown to greenish with two white triangular patches behind the eye. The body and tail are mottled in shades of dark green and black with whitish blotches along the flanks.
Habitat:
Favouring coastal forests particularly dense areas of vines, shrubs and bushes as well as perching high up in large trees.
Field Notes:
Likely the most elegantly looking chameleon in the Eastern Cape. These chameleons have adapted well to urban environments and can be abundant in hedges rows amongst houses in some towns where they occurs. Found in several protected nature reserves in the Transkei including: Silaka, Hluleka, Mkambati Nature Reserves and Ntsubane Forest Reserve although there are thriving populations in the vicinity of Port St Johns.
Bradypodion caffer
Transkei Dwarf Chameleon. From Port St. John’s, Eastern Cape.