On the 25th June 2013 at 09:28am, as a young student, Sam Davidson-Phillips was busy preparing fire belts along the Outback road of the Reserve. During the mop up of an area, he casually kicked an old dried, elephant dung bolus which happened to be lying close to the freshly burnt area. The bolus cracked open revealing the most unusual treasure.

Inside this dried, dilapidated dung bolus was a small flap-necked chameleon. A chameleon? Inside a dung bolus? Why? These were all very good questions, and they were running in a loop through Sam’s mind. The slow-moving reptile appeared to be sleeping with his eyes closed, his skin was icy cold and his scales devoid of colour giving him a darkish black colouration. He called over Jonathan Swart, the Reserve Ecologist to examine the unexpected find.

What Sam had unwittingly discovered was a “brumating” chameleon. Chameleons, as reptiles, are ectothermic (“cold blooded”) and this means they rely on their environment for regulating their body temperature and do not maintain a constant body temperature like most mammals. Instead they will move between areas to gain heat if they are cold (like lizards basking in the sun) or lose heat (by retreating into shady crevices) as needed. When environmental temperatures drop, usually when we head into the winter season, ectotherms can enter into a state of dormancy known as brumation.

Ectotherms are pretty impressive. When food is scarce and temperatures begin to fall, they often decide to conserve energy by choosing not to warm themselves at all and they effectively ‘switch off’ their metabolism; they stop eating, their heart virtually stops beating and their breathing rate decreases. When conditions improve, they are then able to kickstart their metabolism and continue living their normal day to day lives.

In the Waterberg mountains, and especially within the two dominant vegetation types that exist on the Reserve, there is a high incidence of fire. Stories of chameleons and other reptiles seeking refuge are often suggested in the highveld regions as a strategy to escape from fires.

So, if many reptiles do this what is so special about what Sam had discovered that day? Well, never before has a chameleon ever been recorded seeking refuge in an elephant’s dung ball! The implications of this discovery are quite important as elephants, which were reintroduced to the Reserve in 1995, may be important habitat modifiers for reptile diversity. In other parts of the world amphibians have been recorded making use of megaherbivore dung as refugia and anecdotally some fossorial reptiles also utilise them, so it’s highly likely that the use of these dung piles by herpetofauna is more common than currently thought. This makes documenting this record vital for highlighting the potential importance of these dung piles for reptile diversity.

Sam, who is now the Conservation Manager on the Reserve together with Jonathan, were encouraged to get the finding recorded scientifically and have just published this as a short note in the African Herp News. Who would have thought that a dung pile could be so underestimated? The next time you are in the bush, crack open the crust and dig about – who knows what you might find!

Photos: Top – ©Tim Hoffmeester, Inset – ©Sam Davidson-Phillips[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]