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
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.10315.18.9.29784-29786Keywords:
Behavioural plasticity, Chamaeleonidae, nest site selection, reproductive ecologyAbstract
The Panther Chameleon Furcifer pardalis is a widespread Malagasy lizard commonly found in both natural and disturbed habitats, yet key aspects of its natural history, particularly its reproductive behaviour in the wild, remain poorly documented. Previous reports of oviposition that describe the substrate have involved sandy soils. During a forest walk on Nosy Komba, an island off the coast of northwestern Madagascar, we observed an approximately 12-cm-sized adult female F. pardalis displaying deep blue-violet body colouration associated with the pre-oviposition condition while digging a burrow in moist, compacted, clayey soil within a secondary tropical forest. Egg deposition was not observed. However, the animal’s colouration and directed excavation behaviour were consistent with published accounts of nest construction. To our knowledge, this is the first documented direct observation of F. pardalis engaging in putative nest excavation in a non-sandy substrate. This observation suggests that F. pardalis females may be less constrained in their choice of substrate for reproductive excavation than previous reports of nesting in sandy soils imply.
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