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Words From the Editor

By Christopher V. Anderson


Citation:

Anderson, C.V. (2010). Words from the editor. Chameleons! Online E-Zine, July 2010. (http://www.chameleonnews.com/10JulAndersonWFTE.html)


Dear Chameleons! Online E-Zine readers,


First, I’d like to thank everyone for their patience and loyalty over the last couple years. Everyone involved in the E-Zine has had an extremely busy and hectic couple of years, but I am happy to be back at providing everyone with the best, most current information available on chameleons.


In order to help ensure that issues are posted in a more timely fashion, I have made a few key changes to the organization of the E-Zine. First, due to other time commitments, Brandy Snow is no longer the webmaster for the E-Zine. Instead, I have learned a little bit about web design and I am now responsible for maintaining the website and updating the E-Zine with new content. I hope this will eliminate a great deal of delays in providing future issues. Additionally, my previous Assistant Editor, Jason Descamps, is no longer working with chameleons and has stepped down. In order to help bring new content to the E-Zine on a diverse range of topics, I have enlisted the help of two new Assistant Editors: Jared Cain and Kent Manchen. Both Jared and Kent are highly experienced chameleon breeders with considerable experience working with many different chameleon species. Their experiences should be extremely helpful in providing strong future content!


Our first article for this issue comes to you from Steven Deckers and myself. In it, we talk about our experiences keeping and breeding a few different species from the South African genus Bradypodion. These beautiful, relatively small, live bearing chameleons are extremely rare in US collections and uncommon in European collections. We hope that by providing information on our experiences with some of these species, that these captive populations will continue to grow through captive breeding efforts, both in the US and Europe.


Our next article comes from Kent Manchen, one of our new Assistant Editors. In this article, Kent describes the differences between the three subspecies of Jackson’s Chameleon (Trioceros jacksonii) and outlines his experiences keeping and breeding these three subspecies in captivity. Considering how popular Jackson’s Chameleons are and how notorious they are when people think of chameleons, relatively little has been written outlining the differences in captive care and breeding of these species. Hopefully this article will be an enjoyable read for everyone.


Next, Dave Weldon has joined us to provide an article on chameleon lighting. In 2004, Andy Beveridge provided us with an article that provided an excellent base for understanding chameleon lighting. Here, Dave goes in a little more depth, looking at different types of lighting options and discussing their pros and cons. Lighting is one of the most important aspects of chameleon husbandry and I’m glad Dave was willing to share his knowledge with everyone in this article!


While the standard for keeping chameleons has been screen enclosures, many keepers in Europe and now the US have started utilizing glass terrariums for keeping chameleons, particularly smaller montane species. I’ve provided an article outlining the use of glass terrariums in chameleon keeping, along with the changes in husbandry needed to utilize this method safely.


Finally, Jared Cain, our other new Assistant Editor, has provided us with a Questions & Answers article consisting of a number of common chameleon questions. In future issues, Jared and Kent will alternate between writing the questions and answer section. Anyone with a questions should contact them: Jared Cain or Kent Manchen.


In the future, we will be notifying everyone of updates to the E-Zine through our Facebook Page. Please visit this page by clicking the “Like” button on the left side of each E-Zine page, just below the navigation bars, and you will receive updates as soon as we load new content to the E-Zine.


Finally, I’d like to encourage everyone to submit article ideas to me for future E-Zine issues. If there is an article you’d like to see, an author you think would be good to write it, or if you think you have an article you’d like to write, I’d love to hear from you and talk about getting it going. Even if English isn’t your native language, I’d be happy to help edit it with you.


Chris Anderson

Editor




Christopher V. Anderson


Chris Anderson started keeping chameleons in 1997 and since then has worked with over 50 different species. Having spent time in the jungles of South East Asia, among other areas, aiding in research for publication, he has traveled to over 35 countries, including chameleon habitat in 6. Included in these, he has traveled throughout Madagascar in search of, and conducting personal research on the chameleons of the region. Having received his B.S. in Animal Science from Cornell University, Chris is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of South Florida’s Department of Integrative Biology studying the effects of temperature on ballistic tongue projection and tongue retraction in chameleons for his dissertation. Some of his research has been published in top scientific journals and featured in popular press and news outlets all over the world. Currently, Chris is the Editor and Webmaster of the Chameleons! Online E-Zine. Chris’ personal website can be found at www.chamaeleonidae.com and he can be emailed at Chris.Anderson@chameleonnews.com or cvanders@mail.usf.edu.

 

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