Veiled Chameleons in Florida? Absolutely!

[FLVenom]

Last evening a few of us took a herping trip out to Big Cypress National Preserve situated in the heart of the Florida Everglades. This far western area seemed to have been spared from the vicious thunderstorms that hit the state yesterday. So with the roads being dry, we weren't dissapointed.

Yellow Rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta quadrivittata) Beautiful specimen! Not happy with our presence as well.






Corn snake (Elaphe guttata) Here's John (Serpentscoil) with her as she crosses the road.



Florida Water Snake (Nerodia f. fasciata) An almost solid black specimen.




Florida Cottonmouths (Agkistrodon p. conanti) Some pretty trapjaws that were on the move.






Now on to the exotics! We left the preserve and met up with Dave and Shana to herp an area known to have a wild population of Chamaeleo calyptratus. They were first reported here around 2002 and the population has exploded since. We first tried a week before and came up empty handed. We just about called it a night when Dave spotted this beautiful juvenile female high up in the tree.



Dave and Shana admiring the catch..



and myself with my first ever wild caught Chameleon...in Florida!




quickly after that, John spotted a male close by. Didn't get that many photos of him, but here's a decent one.

[BRITTani]

Sweeet Chams are cool

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[Yaymus]

Wow, so much diveristy down there. That is so cool, Chameleons, who knew

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[Jenny06]

wow did not know FL had wild chameleons...nice....and love the yellow rat snake, happy mine is nice.

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[myounguf]

dade county has had a breeding population for quite some time now.... nice catch, are you keeping any of them or is this a catch and release project. I just had a buddy bring back two juvenile veiled's a couple weeks back. Very laid back for wild caught specimens. It is my belief that only non-native, invasive species should be harvested, so both you and Florida benefit!

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[VexalUntil]

Nifty, I heard there's some around Crutchfield's old place too. Or is that where you were?

Just catch a bunch and sell them to Strickly or Ben Siegel.

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[Jenny06]

catch me one lol

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[FLVenom]

Originally Posted by VexalUntil

Nifty, I heard there's some around Crutchfield's old place too. Or is that where you were?
Just catch a bunch and sell them to Strickly or Ben Siegel.

Your talking about Tom's old place in Lake Panaskofee? Nope, these are way south!

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[FLVenom]

Originally Posted by myounguf

dade county has had a breeding population for quite some time now.... nice catch, are you keeping any of them or is this a catch and release project. I just had a buddy bring back two juvenile veiled's a couple weeks back. Very laid back for wild caught specimens. It is my belief that only non-native, invasive species should be harvested, so both you and Florida benefit!

You heard of one in Dade? I haven't heard about that one. There's only two areas I know of that have them there. Professional collecters hit the one area very hard from what I hear. We should organize a Chameleon census!

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[myounguf]

Originally Posted by FLVenom

You heard of one in Dade? I haven't heard about that one. There's only two areas I know of that have them there. Professional collecters hit the one area very hard from what I hear. We should organize a Chameleon census!

ahhh... south dade is loaded with veiled in about a wooded 25 acre area within a particular group of subdivisions.... cannot remember the exact location but a buddy of mine had the coordinates logged on his handheld GPS.... it was by chance they found it, while they where doing a collection for a particular species of gecko. Beautiful markings on the two he brought back.... and as I said before, as docile as can be.

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