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Words From the Editor

By Christopher V. Anderson


Citation:

Anderson, C.V. (2005). Words from the editor. Chameleons! Online E-Zine, June 2005. (http://www.chameleonnews.com/05JunAndersonWFTE.html)


I'd like to start by thanking everyone for their patience with the delay of the release of this issue. As sometimes happens, life outside of chameleons for the authors and editorial staff sometimes forces occasional delays and your understanding has been greatly appreciated. As always, I hope everyone finds the wait between issues to be worth it!

To kick off this issue, I've coauthored with Mike Coraggio and Leah Kroo an article on Chamaeleo (Trioceros) montium. This gem of a species from Cameroon has been quite enjoyable for each of us to work with over the years and hopefully this article will provide you all with helpful information on their care and natural history.

For those of you who like a challenge and a project with potentially breathtaking results, "roo" has given us a step-by-step tutorial on the construction of his particularly nice stump-tailed chameleon enclosures. This should provide those interested in working with Brookesia, Rhampholeon and Rieppeleon species the information on properly setting up their enclosures.

Jason Descamps has submitted an excellent article discussing some of the basics of gutloads. This is an extremely important topic in nutrition of captive chameleons and he's helped provide some basic information on this practice so that you can make educated decisions about your feeder's and ultimately, your chameleon's health.

Along with my regular Q&A segment, I've written up a short summary of recent taxonomical changes to the genus Rhampholeon. While I realize to many, sticking with the previous classification might seem easier, these classification changes are often very significant and adaptation to new scientific names is important, even for hobbyists. I'd highly encourage people to acknowledge and adapt to these new changes now as there are a number of further changes to other chameleon genera that will be proposed over the next couple years. As with any collection of changes, its best to get used to them over time as they come out than suddenly be forced to notice many.

Lastly, I'd like to congratulate Henk Baljeu for winning the photo contest. As you see, his photograph of a male Ambilobe Furcifer pardalis is this month's cover photo. The other photos that were voted on are once again listed on a photo contest page so that you now can see the names of the photographer behind the image. I'd like to thank all those who submitted photos and those who took the time to vote, it was quite a success!

As always, I'd like to encourage those interested in writing articles to contact me. You don't have to be an expert to write, just have something useful to share!

Enjoy the issue and thanks for all the great comments!



Christopher V. Anderson


Chris Anderson is a herpetologist currently working on his Ph.D. at the University of South Florida after receiving his B.S. from Cornell University. He has spent time in the jungles of South East Asia, among other areas, aiding in research for publication. He has previously traveled throughout Madagascar in search of, and conducting personal research on, the chameleons of the region. He has traveled to over 35 countries, including chameleon habitat in 6. Currently, Chris is the Editor and Webmaster of the Chameleons! Online E-Zine and is studying the kinematics and morphological basis of ballistic tongue projection and tongue retraction in chameleons for his dissertation. Chris Can be emailed at Chris.Anderson@chameleonnews.com or cvanders@mail.usf.edu.

 

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