Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 September 2026 | 18(9): 29784–29786
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.10315.18.9.29784-29786
#10315 | Received 18 December 2025 | Final received 03 July 2026 | Finally
accepted 08 September 2026
Toil in the
soil: putative nest excavation by an adult female Panther Chameleon Furcifer pardalis (Cuvier,
1829) in moist, clayey soil on Nosy Komba, Madagascar
Hinrich Kaiser 1 &
Przemysław Zdunek
2
1 Department of Biology, Victor
Valley College, 18422 Bear Valley Road, Victorville, California 92395, USA; and
Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels,
Museum Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn,
Germany.
Present address: School of
Biological Sciences, Kadoorie Biological Sciences
Building, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong.
2 Pôle Sup Nature, 205 Rue de l’Acropole, 34000 Montpellier, France; and
NATRIX Herpetological Association, ul. Opolska 41/1, 52-010 Wrocław,
Poland.
1 hinrich.kaiser@vvc.edu, 2 zdunek.komodo@gmail.com
(corresponding author)
Editor:
S.R. Ganesh, Kalinga Foundation, Agumbe, India. Date of publication: 26
September 2026 (online & print)
Citation:
Kaiser, H. & P. Zdunek (2026). Toil in the soil: putative nest excavation by
an adult female Panther Chameleon Furcifer pardalis (Cuvier, 1829) in moist, clayey soil on Nosy Komba, Madagascar. Journal
of Threatened Taxa 18(9): 29784–29786. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.10315.18.9.29784-29786
Copyright:
© Kaiser & Zdunek 2026. Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows
unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium
by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: We acknowledge financial support received in support of student travel from the VVC Foundation and the Associate Student Body of Victor Valley College.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: This observation was made during a student trip under the auspices of the Tropical Research Initiative at Victor Valley College. We thank the Victor Valley College Foundation and the Associated Student Body of Victor Valley College (ASB) for financial support of student travel, and we wish to express our gratitude to Robert Sewell for facilitating the ASB funding. We also extend our appreciation to the staff of the Eco-Gîte Akiba (https://akibakomba.org/eco-gite) for welcoming us and for making our stay very productive.
The Panther Chameleon Furcifer pardalis
(Cuvier, 1829), is common across various parts of Madagascar, especially in the
central-northeastern and northwestern
regions (Ferguson et al. 2004). It inhabits a variety of environments,
including humid, semi-humid, and transitional areas (Andreone
et al. 2005; Glaw & Vences
2007; Deso et al. 2022). These chameleons are
primarily edge dwellers (Ries et al. 2017), found in
undisturbed canopy forests and capable of adapting well to anthropogenic
habitats. They have also been introduced to disparate regions around the world
(e.g., Florida, USA, and Réunion Island; Cheke 1987; Rabearivony et al. 2007; Rochford et al. 2013; Deso et al. 2022). Despite being actively collected and
traded internationally as pets (Andreone et al. 2005;
Carpenter et al. 2005), there is limited knowledge about the natural
history and reproductive behaviour of F. pardalis
in the wild (Rabearivony et al. 2007; Eppley 2019),
but all records we were able to find either attest exclusively to the use of
sandy soils as the site for oviposition (Rabearivony
et al. 2007; Negro & Negro 2017; Eppley 2019; Laube
et al. 2021) or are silent on the matter (e.g., McGeough 2016). We here present
the first observation of an adult female F. pardalis
digging in moist non-sandy soil under circumstances consistent with nest
excavation, thereby expanding our understanding of the species’ reproductive
ecology.
The observation was made on 03
February 2020 at 1153 h on Nosy Komba (also known as
Nosy Ambariovato), a small island (13.4506° S,
48.3421° E; area 27.9 km2) located off the coast of northwestern Madagascar between the main island and Nosy Bé. The observation occurred in a typical secondary
tropical forest (Hyde Roberts & Daly 2014) at an elevation of ca. 300 m,
which was classified as a “closed canopy forest” of native non-cultivated
species that may include mango and jackfruit by Blumgart
et al. (2017). A deep blue-violet F. pardalis
(snout–vent length ca. 12 cm) was observed actively excavating a burrow (Image
1A). The approximate size of the lizard, indicative of its maturity level, and
its colouration are associated with gravid adult females approaching
oviposition (Eppley 2019). The observer’s attention was drawn to the moist,
compacted soil (“clayey soil”; Firoozi et al. 2016),
in which the female dug using her left limbs in concert, the front limb to
excavate and the rear limb to move the soil further behind her (Image 1B).
While no soil samples were taken for further analysis, qualitative evaluation
showed that this type of dark soil had relatively high moisture content and
felt very sticky (hence our use of the term “clayey”), very unlike the type of
sandy soil depicted by Laube et al. (2021). The
temperature at the time of observation was 29°C with > 80% humidity, no
wind, and clear skies above the canopy cover. To avoid disturbing the animal,
the observation lasted only 5 min, during which several photos and videos were
taken from a suitable distance. Because these obligatorily arboreal lizards
rarely descend to the ground and do not dig for foraging or escape, the
observed digging is most parsimoniously interpreted as oviposition behaviour.
The combination of size and colouration associated with the pre-oviposition
condition by an adult female and directed burrow excavation is consistent with
previously described nest-digging behaviour in F. pardalis.
Data on the reproduction of F.
pardalis in the wild remain limited, and
available published observations have associated oviposition with sandy soils
(e.g., Rabearivony et al. 2007; Eppley 2019; Strand
2023). To the best of our knowledge, our observation is the first documented
instance of a F. pardalis female digging in
moist, clayey soil under circumstances consistent with nest construction. Egg
deposition was not observed, and we therefore cannot confirm that the
excavation ultimately resulted in a completed nest or oviposition.
Nevertheless, the female’s size, colouration and directed excavation behaviour
are consistent with previously described pre-oviposition behaviour in F. pardalis (e.g., Rabearivony
et al. 2007; Eppley 2019). The observation therefore demonstrates that F. pardalis can excavate a moist, cohesive, non-sandy
substrate during probable nest construction. Whether such substrates are
regularly used for completed oviposition will require additional field
observations.
Females of this species may have
a limited home range or microhabitat preferences (Gehring et al. 2008), which
could indicate that this individual might return to this location or has
already used it, but this is speculative. Furcifer
pardalis females rarely survive longer than a
year in the wild; they exhibit high fecundity, with clutch sizes ranging from
10–40 eggs, and reproductive activity begins at around 6 mo
old, followed by additional clutches every 3 mo
thereafter (Müller et al. 2004; Andreone et al.
2005). Nest construction usually takes several hours, and females lay their
eggs within an hour or two (Bolton & Abate 2002), which, to some extent,
explains the choice of a loose substrate in terms of energy cost. Eppley (2019)
showed the first evidence of spatiotemporal oviposition planning by this
species. Observations such as these, even as single events, can broaden the
scope of information about the natural history and ecology of F. pardalis and their reproductive behaviour.
For image - - click here for full PDF
References
Andreone, F. et al. (2005). Life history traits, age profile,
and conservation of the panther chameleon, Furcifer
pardalis (Cuvier 1829), at Nosy Be, NW
Madagascar. Tropical Zoology 18: 209–225.https://doi.org/10.1080/03946975.2005.10531221
Blumgart, D. et al. (2017). Herpetological diversity across
intact and modified habitats of Nosy Komba Island,
Madagascar. Journal of Natural History 51: 625–642. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2017.1287312
Bolton, J. & A. Abate (2002). Multigenerational captive
reproduction of Furcifer pardalis and Furcifer
oustaleti. Chameleon Information Network Journal
44: 5–10.
Carpenter, A.I. et al. (2005). The
impacts of international and national governance changes on a traded resource:
a case study of Madagascar and its chameleon trade. Biological Conservation
123: 279–287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2004.11.015
Cheke, A. (1987). Species accounts: the native fauna –
reptiles (tortoises, marine turtles, lizards, snakes), pp. 51–59. In: Diamond
A.W. (ed.). Studies of Mascarene Island Birds. University Press, Cambridge, UK,
458 pp. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.240.4855.1076
Deso, G. et al. (2022). Panther chameleons Furcifer pardalis
using aerial cables in urban habitats. Herpetological Bulletin 162: 43–44. https://doi.org/10.33256/hb162.4344
Eppley, T.M. (2019). Evidence of
spatiotemporal planning in a panther chameleon (Furcifer
pardalis) on the Masoala
Peninsula, Madagascar. Herpetology Notes 12: 909–911.
Ferguson, G.W. et al. (2004). The
Panther Chameleon: Color Variation, Natural History,
Conservation, and Captive Management. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar,
Florida, USA.
Firoozi, A.A. et al. (2016). A review of clayey soils. Asian
Journal of Applied Sciences 4: 1319–1330.
Gehring, P-S., et al. (2008).
Habitat preferences and activity patterns of Furcifer
pardalis (Cuvier, 1829) in the Masoala Rain Forest Hall of the Zurich Zoo. Salamandra 44: 129–140.
Glaw, F. & M. Vences (2007).
Field Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of Madagascar. 3rd
edition. Vences & Glaw
Verlag, Cologne, Germany.
Hyde-Roberts S. & C. Daly
(2014). A rapid herpetofaunal assessment of Nosy Komba Island, northwestern
Madagascar, with new locality records for seventeen species. Salamandra 50: 18–26.
Laube, A. et al. (2021). Annual cycle of soil temperatures
in the dry forest of Ankarafantsika, Ambato-Boeny region, West Madagascar. Chamaeleo
32(1): 89–100.
McGeough, R. (2016). Furcifer pardalis
(Panther Chameleon) – a brief species description and details on captive
husbandry. Biology, Engineering, Medicine and Science Reports 2(2): 27–38.
Müller, R. et al. (2004). Furcifer pardalis. Das Panther Chamäleon. Natur und Tier-Verlag,
Münster, Germany.
Negro, T. & A. Negro (2017).
Gravidity and egg deposition.
https://www.madcham.de/en/traechtigkeit-und-eiablage. Accessed on 20.vii.2026.
Rabearivony, J. et al. (2007). Habitat use and abundance of a
low-altitude chameleon assemblage in eastern Madagascar. The Herpetological
Journal 17: 247–254.
Ries, L. et al. (2017). Closing persistent gaps in
knowledge about edge ecology. Current Landscape Ecology Reports 2: 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40823-017-0022-4
Rochford, M.R. et al. (2013). The
Panther Chameleon, Furcifer pardalis (Cuvier 1829) (Chamaeleonidae),
another introduced chameleon species in Florida. Reptiles and Amphibians 20:
205–207. https://doi.org/10.17161/randa.v20i4.13974
Strand, B. (2023). Chameleon
Academy, Chameleon lays eggs in Madagascar! https://youtu.be/OlV_Eim-ylk.
Accessed on 20.vii.2026.