A Red Herring... A False Chameleon!

We heard from Chris Anderson at UCBerkely (California) that our recent squamate visitor was not in fact a chameleon but a false one! Polychrus gutturosus . Our friends, Costa Rican expert herpatologists Mamoot Sasa and Frederico Bolaños, tell us that these are essentially arboreal lizards, which pass their time in the tree canopy and are therefore little known. Their distribution ranges from Honduras to Ecuador and Amozonian Peru. Here is another photo, this time showing a darker skin cast.

The Happy Herper

Nilo is wild about ALL lizards, so he was naturally delighted by this jewel!

The Changling!

It's been a few days since we've posted any news because we are working on development of the image gallery pages for the official LCO website (as well as there being some serious grant writing underway!). Whilst I was watching some birds from the balcony of the house - that has to be one of THE best nature viewing spots on the whole Peninsula - Something in the bushes caught my eye. A dead leaf? A snake? Wait... it's a strangle looking lizard. Reinaldo came up from the lower garden and managed to lure the creature down from it's perch on the end of a long stick, and it turned out to be a truly gorgeous chameleon! After more than a decade of field work in the region, Reinaldo has never seen or heard of one of these creatures, and we suspect that they must be rather rare.