Chameleons are not good pets
Three Veiled Chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus) have been added to the Live Exhibit collection at Melbourne Museum. The amazing chameleons were handed into the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) a few weeks ago, and offered to the Museum for display and public education use.
It is illegal to keep chameleons as pets in Australia, as it is feared that if they were to escape from captivity, they could establish viable breeding populations in the wild, or introduce exotic diseases to our native wildlife.
The Museum is fortunate enough to hold the chameleons under special permit, on the condition that we use them to educate the public on the dangers of keeping these exotic reptiles as pets.
Veiled Chameleons are native to Yemen and southern Saudi Arabia. Males can grow up to 60cm in length and live for 8 years. Females are smaller and only live for around 5 years.
At present, the Museum's adult male is on display in the [url="http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/discoverycentre/index.asp"]Discovery Centre[/url], and the female and juvenile are housed in the Live Exhibit back-of-house area, where they will be kept in isolation from the rest of the live reptile collection.
[url="http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/"]http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/[/url]
Three Veiled Chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus) have been added to the Live Exhibit collection at Melbourne Museum. The amazing chameleons were handed into the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) a few weeks ago, and offered to the Museum for display and public education use.
It is illegal to keep chameleons as pets in Australia, as it is feared that if they were to escape from captivity, they could establish viable breeding populations in the wild, or introduce exotic diseases to our native wildlife.
The Museum is fortunate enough to hold the chameleons under special permit, on the condition that we use them to educate the public on the dangers of keeping these exotic reptiles as pets.
Veiled Chameleons are native to Yemen and southern Saudi Arabia. Males can grow up to 60cm in length and live for 8 years. Females are smaller and only live for around 5 years.
At present, the Museum's adult male is on display in the [url="http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/discoverycentre/index.asp"]Discovery Centre[/url], and the female and juvenile are housed in the Live Exhibit back-of-house area, where they will be kept in isolation from the rest of the live reptile collection.
[url="http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/"]http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/[/url]
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