Original scientific paper
New data on the distribution and population density of the African Chameleon, Chamaeleo africanus and the Common Chameleon, Chamaeleo chamaeleon in Greece
Maria Dimaki
; Goulandris Natural History Museum, 100 Othonos St., 145 62 Kifissia, Greece
Basil Chondropoulos
; Section of Animal Biology, Dept. of Biology, Univ. of Patra, Greece
Anastasios Legakis
; Zoological Museum, Dept. of Biology, Univ. of Athens, Greece
Efstratios Valakos
; Section of Animal & Human Physiology, Dept. of Biology, Univ. of Athens, Greece
Marios Vergetopoulos
; Goulandris Natural History Museum, 100 Othonos St., 145 62 Kifissia, Greece
Abstract
New data on the distribution and the population density of the Common Chameleon Chamaeleo chamaeleon (Linnaeus, 1758) and the African Chameleon Chamaeleo africanus Laurenti, 1768 are reported from Greece. The data for the Common Chameleon was collected from Samos Island (Aegean Sea) and for the African Chameleon from the SW Peloponnese. The period of the data collection is from 1998 till 2014. The African Chameleon is an allochthonous species for Greece and its presence in the area of Gialova Pylos is likely due to its introduction in historical times, because chameleons were often used in the past as pets by people and kings (Bodson, 1984). Some months ago a new population of the Common Chameleon was discovered in Attica. The distribution of the African Chameleon has expanded in the western Peloponnese with at least two new populations. This expansion is due to the local translocation of the species by humans. The population density of the African Chameleon ranged from 0.44 (in 2014) to 401.30 (in 1999) individuals/ha, while for the Common Chameleon ranged from 0.83 (in 2001) to 53,33 ind/ha (in 1998). The mean population density of the African Chameleon in Pylos was 9.69 ind/ha (estimated without the extreme value of 401.30), while that of the Common Chameleon in Samos was 5.26 ind/ha. No statistically significant difference was found in the sex ratio for either chameleon species. Only in the African Chameleon we did find a statistically significant difference between juvenile and adult numbers, as juveniles were more numerous (60.7% of the population).
Keywords
Chamaeleo africanus, Chamaeleo chameleon, Greece; distribution, population density
Hrčak ID:
147160
URI
Publication date:
31.7.2015.
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