Wild Oustalet's Chameleons in South Florida

In my opinion Chameleon are some of the most fascinating animals in this world. Several species of Chameleons have become established in the wilds of South Florida. It's very exciting to see them in the wild and truthfully one of my favorite wildlife activities is to go shine for Chameleons. All of the Chameleons posted here are wild Oustalet's Chameleons (Furcifer oustaleti) in South Florida. You can also check out Wild Veiled Chameleons in South Florida.

Tail of Adult Male Oustalet's Chameleon

Female Oustalet's Chameleon (Furcifer oustaleti)

Wild Veiled Chameleons in South Florida

Tail of Adult Male Veiled Chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus)

Gravid Female 

Left: Male Veiled Chameleon, Right: Gravid Female Veiled (Chamaeleo calyptratus)

Last week we planned a double date with our good friends Krysta and Devin. The boys have gone a few times and brought home Oustalet's Chameleons. Krysta and I have been waiting our turn to go out and catch some. We were armed with flashlights and boots for what could be a long night, these reptiles can be pretty hard to spot. But within 30 minutes we had already bagged two of these big, beautiful Veiled Chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus). Devin spotted both, so we walked around a little longer because I wanted to spot one too (I'm a little stubborn like that). In the end my upcoming test got the better of me and I gave up so I could get home for more study time. It was a fun and successful night. Chameleons are such amazing little animals and perfect pets!! And I got a 95% on the test, totally win win.

The gravid Female we caught that night, ended up laying 26 eggs, which hatched about 7 months later. To see some pictures of the baby veiled chameleon that hatched click HERE.

Manatees in Miami

Fall semester Krysta and I started going to yoga on Saturday mornings with a friend. It was so relaxing getting up and taking an hour for myself each week. Seriously giving my body a workout and my mind a brake, what could be better than that? When pulling into a parking space after yoga one day we saw a small crowd of people looking at the canal behind our apt. There was not enough people to be SUPER suspicions but we asked anyway what the attraction was. It turned out that there were three manatees swimming in the canal in the middle of Miami!!! Two adults and a baby, it was a little manatee family ahah. We dropped our yoga mats and were on the edge of the canal in no time. We had been dying to see manatees since last winter, and the closest we got were two sightings at the beach, but they only really looked like big blobs. These manatees where coming up and eating the over grown grass on the side of the waterway. It was awesome! We quickly called the boys to get out here asap, not knowing how long they would stay. Blake quickly ended and relocated the meeting he was in the middle of to on the edge of the canal. He was meeting with the LDS missionaries… I don’t think they were to disappointed with the change of location. We (not the missionaries) ended up spending a good hour or so watching the two adults and juvenile manatee swim around. I’m so glad we were curious that morning after yoga. 

Feliz New Year Miami

New Years is one of our favorite holidays. For as long as I have known Blake (06/07 NYE) my New Years Eves have been spent at the Russ house enjoying a pretty impressive bon fire. As we were not going to make the drive back home for the event this year we had no idea what we were going to do with ourselves that evening. After starting out with no plans, we were invited over to Bryan’s (Blake’s older brother) house in Naples. However that morning Blake got a flat tire, he tried to get it fixed and ready to go but had no luck. By 6 everything was closed and we were stuck in Miami with no plans again. Determined not to stay home, we packed up some blankets, a DVD, jambox, and a computer, then set out in search of food. After eating at our favorite Tex-Mex we headed over to Miami Beach, not knowing what to expect but heavy traffic. We were pleasantly surprised, with very little traffic and front row parking a block from the beach with our hybrid car.

Ocean drive was completely blocked off and the streets were full of people from all over the world. We enjoyed walking around taking in the evening scene; lights, music, dancing, countdowns. After taking a little tour around, we found a grassy spot laid out our blankets and watched a movie till almost midnight, when we packed up our stuff and made our way to the beach. There we found a place in the sand and waited for the count down. When the clock hit 12 we enjoyed a nice firework show on the beach. This year because Blake was not the one putting on the show I got my first new years kiss actually at midnight. It was a perfect evening, just Blake and I, no traffic, good food, a movie and firework show on the beach. Just goes to show that sometimes plan B can kick butt.