First description:

(Vaillant & Grandidier, 1880)

Origin of the species name:

The French zoologists Léon Louis Vaillant and Guillaume Grandidier worked together in the French Zoological Society on various publications. They named this chameleon species after the Latin furca for “fork”. It denotes the characteristic nasal process of the males of Calumma furcifer.

Calumma furcifer

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Vohidrazana: -18.955649, 48.552532

Distribution:

Calumma furcifer occurs in the east of the central highlands. You can find these animals about 25 km east of Andasibe national park in Voidrazana. In this area, the primary forest is almost completely burned, and only some small areas with forest-like secondary vegetation have regrown. The chameleons live in slope regions near rivers that are difficult to access, probably since these terrains remained as of the last shelter due to its less attractive usability for firewood and grazing cattle. This residual habitat is massively threatened by slash-and-burn agriculture and will probably completely disappear in the next years. This chameleon is almost impossible to find yet.

Appearance and size:

Males of Calumma furcifer have a small furcated nose appendage that their species name is dedicated to. With a total length of 15 cm, they belong to the smaller or mid-sized chameleons. Their scales are grass green with an indistinct pale white lateral stripe that has two distinct white spots. The casque is flat and almost directly blends into the back. They have only a dorsal ridge with spines that have rather much distance to each other and do not continue on the tail.

• Climate table
• More about climate
• UVB indices
• Ground temperatures

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Average temperature	23	24	23	23	22	19	19	19	20	21	22	23
Minimum temperature	20	20	20	19	18	15	15	15	15	16	18	19
Maximum temperature	27	27	27	27	25	23	23	23	24	25	26	27
Rain days	27	24	19	17	18	21	20	15	16	20	25

We have collected the data given above over several years with thermometers and hygrometers at the finding places of the chameleons. "Average temperature" means that values of a whole month have been calculated to one average value per month. For example all measured minimum temperature values of February have been calculated to one average minimum temperature for February. In plain language, this means single peak values of a day may be a little higher or lower than the average minimum and maximum temperatures. It is possible that a location has an average maximum temperature of 29°C, but one day during that month it had 33°C or even 35°C there.

The region around Andasibe with the belonging forests Mantadia and Analamazaotra is located in Madagascar's eastern highlands at elevations between 900 and 1250 m above sea level. Thus temperatures sometimes reach temperatures above 25°C, but thermometers rarely climbs above 30°C or only in sunny places. At night, temperatures always drop to 10° to 15°C.

Humidity in Andasibe's rainforest is high all year long. During rainy season, it rains intensively every day, sometimes rain even lasts for days. But also dry season does not differ much besides the fact of cooler temperatures. It still rains at least every other day, in most years more often. Rain, humidity and temperature drop at night are the key features of the region around Andasibe.

Tageszeit = day time, Sonne = sun, Halbschatten = half shade, Schatten = shade

We have measured UVB data with a Solarmeter 6.5 in spring (March, April) at the peak of activity of chameleons in Madagascar. We always measured the values that a chameleon could maximally reach in its habitat.

Unfortunately, we have no ground temperatures for the region of Andasibe available yet.

Habitat:

The following pictures show the habitat of Calumma furcifer. The area almost completely consists of secondary vegetation now, and the animals survive in bushes, shrubs and thin trees on hardly accessible hills. There has been no primary forest here anymore for decades, everything is bare around these hills.

Hereinafter you can find some 360° pictures from regions close to Voidrazana. You can move inside these pictures via mouse click in all directions. If you click on the Theta logo, a new window with an enlarged view will open. You will also have the opportunity to look at the pictures in full screen mode. Enjoy!