Furcifer labordi

Eckhardt, Falk, Strube, Christina, Mathes, Karina A., Mutschmann, Frank, Thiesler, Hauke, Kraus, Cornelia & Kappeler, Peter M., 2019, Parasite burden in a short-lived chameleon, Furcifer labordi, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 10, pp. 231-240 : 239

4.4. Furcifer labordi in captivity

When comparing caged individuals with their wild conspecifics, we found that the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasite infection was significantly higher in the latter one. Although we tried to shield captive specimens from infection, they probably took up parasites from the crickets, lepidopterans and orthopterans that were fed to them. These insects might have transferred parasitic eggs or oocysts. Since the caged chameleons were collected from the forest at the age of approximately two months, they might have also taken up parasite stages before. The two males that were infected with coccidians showed obvious senescent declines. Compared to the median survival time of caged males, (8.2 months, Eckhardt et al., 2017), these specimens showed a remarkably shorter lifespan. In contrast to their wild living conspecifics, we did not find significant intersexual differences in survival within the caged animals. Similar results were obtained in mouse lemurs M. murinus , where survival in the wild was strongly female-biased ( Kraus et al., 2008; Languille et al., 2012), whereas longevity in captivity was slightly male-biased ( Perret, 1997). These findings support the previously mentioned suggestion of Roberts et al. (2004) that testosterone alone is unlikely to be responsible for accelerated senescence and die off in males in the wild. In total, as the caged chameleons were shielded from predation, starvation, desiccation and at least partly from infections, it is not possible to pinpoint the factors facilitating their longer survival in captivity. To identify to which extant the presence or absence of parasites influence the lifespan of caged animals, an experimental manipulation of parasite burden could give insight into the direct effect of parasite infection.