Two delicate baby three horned chameleons make their first steps balanced on cocktail sticks at Exmoor Zoo, Devon. At about 3 centimetres long the baby Johnston’s chameleons spent 16 long weeks developing from an embryo and have just emerged from their leather like egg shell. The curator Danny Reynolds at Exmoor zoo said “two things make these babies just that bit extra special. They are probably the first of this species ever born in captivity within UK zoo’s and the fact that their parents had been rescued from an illegal shipment on-route to the Czech Republic. The Johnston’s chameleon only occurs in the Western branch of the African Rift valley – the Albertine Rift and is extremely rare in captivity”.
The shipment was seized by customs officers at Belgium and was due to be destroyed before the intervention of Specialist Wildlife Services in the UK working in conjunction with our UK Customs officials in May of this year. The illegal shipment of 59 chameleons was placed within UK BIAZA** zoos by the Specialist Wildlife Services. Several other zoos have had eggs laid but Exmoor Zoo is the first to hatch any. Photo by west country PR photographer Guy Harrop
