Tag: lizards

mockwa:

chameleon changes color

Unfortunately, faked. Very well so, though. 

Chameleons don’t change color to hide, like in cartoons. They change color mostly to indicate emotions, intimidate rivals, or impress potential mates. Note that it doesn’t look down at any of the surfaces and therefore can’t have seen them to know what color to be. Also, if it were going to try to hide, it would turn the color of the tabletop. 

They do have some basic ‘hiding’ patterns, but it’s just a pattern that breaks up their outline, they don’t try to color-match. Cuttlefish do that, but not chameleons. You wanna see impressive camo, look at cephalopods. 

Dallas Zoo sets 46 horned lizards loose with its first-ever wildlife release

typhlonectes:

At Mason Mountain Wildlife Management Area, a total of 139 hatchlings
were released, including 93 from the Fort Worth Zoo, which pioneered
breeding programs for Texas horned lizards.

For decades, the
reptile has been vanishing from Texas landscapes. About 10 years ago,
Texas zoos, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials and Texas
Christian University researchers partnered to try to learn how to bring
the critter back to certain pockets of the state…

Also:
Click here to read more about that project and how Texans are working to protect the Texas horned lizard.

release

THE CRUMBS

Dallas Zoo sets 46 horned lizards loose with its first-ever wildlife release

Reptile Science Digest: Leopard Gecko Enrichment!

kaijutegu:

At least two behavioral measures of good welfare increased in captive leopard geckos with every type of enrichment used.

  • (With the exception of the visual enrichment, which was a mirror that let the geckos see their reflections.)

The Citation: Meredith J. Bashaw, Mallory D. Gibson, Devan M. Schowe, Abigail S. Kucher. Does enrichment improve reptile welfare? Leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius) respond to five types of environmental enrichment. Applied Animal Behaviour Science: In press, available online 25 August 2016.

The Article: link here! It’s a docdroid link, which is the site I like to use for uploading PDFs. Clicking that link will not start an automatic download, but will open the PDF in your browser instead. It may load funny at first. If it does, give it a moment and then refresh if it doesn’t fix itself!

The Take-Away: 

  • Enrichment is really important for your reptile’s overall wellness!
  • You can provide enrichment in even a simple tub and plastic hide basic enclosure and your gecko will benefit.
  • Much of the value of enrichment is based on novelty and variety. Enrichment doesn’t mean just cluttering up the cage or adding more hides! It means adding stuff to do and adding new stuff to do!
  • Enrichment introduces small changes, not major environmental shake-ups.
  • Enrichment doesn’t have to be complicated! You can make or buy many simple items that will improve your gecko’s quality of life!

Want to know why? There’s loads of science after the jump!

Keep reading

tl:dr: if you give your geckos stuff to do, they’ll do the stuff and seem to enjoy it.

This applies to all reptiles, though the type of enrichment that’s best will vary between them. Smelly things and things containing food are usually good bets.