A Vital Change for Chameleons

The call for help came late one night in early April.

Agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who had confiscated hundreds of Jackson chameleons smuggled into the country in burlap sacks, were urgently looking for someone to take the hungry, slow-footed creatures off their hands.

Help came when volunteers from Star Inc., a storefront wildlife sanctuary in Culver City, organized a rescue operation for 200 of the lizards who were clinging to life.

“The first 72 hours were crucial,” said Katya Bozzi, the founder of Star Inc. “We had to work fast to nurse them back to health.”

Some of the lizards were lethargic, their normally bright green, camouflage skin was dull, and their eyes were sunken.

The volunteers separated them in cages according to their conditions: a cage for the general population, one for pregnant females and another for newborns, because adult males tend to eat their young. Under warm lights, the lizards were hand-fed crickets and sprayed with water.

Within days, the chameleons--6 inches to a foot in length--began to perk up and show signs of adapting as they turned colors to match the ficus tree leaves in their cages.

“Now they are big and fat and happy and bright green,” said Katiana Bozzi, the founder’s daughter. “We stopped force-feeding them, and they are doing fine.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service relies on organizations like Star to take its exotic hand-me-downs, because the agency does not have space for all the animals and animal products seized each year from smugglers or from traders who bring in more than their permits allow.

Agents have found lizards in suitcases, live coral and clams in plastic bags and reptiles loaded in spare tires, said Mike Osborn, a supervisor with Fish and Wildlife. A few years ago, he said, agents caught a man heading for Asia with 53 snakes taped to his body.

“Then there was the time we got a call from customs officers who had stopped a man in a trench coat,” Osborn said. “It was a hot day, and the man was nervous and sweating. All of a sudden, his coat started moving and squeaking. They opened up the coat and found three monkeys.”

The smuggler probably paid $15 on the streets of Peru for the monkeys, and could have sold them for $2,500 in Los Angeles, Osborn said.

Endangered species seized by agents usually end up in zoos. But the agency tries to place animals like the Jackson chameleon, a popular variety from Tanzania that has been successfully bred around the world, with animal collectors and in educational programs.

Star’s Exploration Station and Children’s Museum has live tarantulas, pythons, boa constrictors and cockatiels. It also has a variety of animal products, including leopard skins, an elephant tusk, a bear rug and a cheetah skin, all confiscated by Fish and Wildlife agents and used in a display to discourage the trade.

In lectures at the station and in visits to elementary schools, instructors from Star teach abut the effects of poaching on the environment.

“It all starts with a law of supply and demand,” Katiana Bozzi said. “We discourage people from buying these products. If they don’t buy them, the poacher won’t kill or capture them for money.”

The lizards have been a main attraction at Star Inc., and several school districts asked if they can adopt some.

“We have to make sure that they know how to care for them before we can let them go out for adoption,” said Katya Bozzi.

Learning how to care for the animals has taught Steve Mitchell, 17, a Culver City High School student who works at Star, an important lesson.

“It’s taught me more about life and what is going on with the environment around the world,” he said.

“It has also help me become more responsible. You have to do everything for these animals, because if you don’t, they don’t make it.”