Counting chameleons

Living up to its name as an eco-estate, Simbithi is involved in a number of projects to protect and conserve animals as well as planting vegetation indigenous to the KZN North Coast.

Of particular note is the estate’s ‘citizen science’ initiative to monitor the health of chameleon populations in Simbithi, which environmental manager, Peter Coulon describes as “very encouraging”.

“Together with visiting researchers and a group of Simbithi residents passionate about chameleons, we spent five nights between sunset and midnight walking through the estate to try to find the black-headed dwarf chameleon, which we thought we had here. However we did not find a single one,” said Coulon.

While no black-headed dwarf chameleons were found, Coulon said the group was thrilled with what they did discover.

“Instead, we found 50 adult flap-necked chameleons, roughly 10 on each night, as well as hundreds of babies roosting at the ends of blades of grass, which was very encouraging for us.”

Simbithi Eco-Estate actually has three chameleon projects running alongside each other, which welcome engagement and participation from the public.

These include the residents’ chameleon group, that helps move chameleons found on building sites in the estate to safer areas, and another project to check the health of chameleon populations within Simbithi through regular counts.

The third project is still underway and involves building a chameleon habitat to better protect the species, while educating children about them.

“We hope that by creating an ideal habitat for chameleons in the estate, we can encourage more people to take an interest in conservation and improve environmental awareness among Simbithi residents,” said Coulon, who added how proud he is to be part of these initiatives.

“In the past, the whole of Simbithi was sugarcane fields, so to see how well the population of these little reptiles is doing is remarkable and is a great indicator of the work we are doing for our wildlife,” he said.