MELAKA: A menagerie in Ayer Keroh here has named 17 chameleon hatchlings after selected state constituencies here in view of the ongoing Melaka election.

       Melaka Butterfly and Reptile Sanctuary managing director Gerard Wong said the reptiles had successfully hatched while Melaka was witnessing an unprecedented state election.

       "Hence, we decided to name and tag each of these little ones based on the names of selected state seats.

       "They will be called Ayer Keroh, Lendu, Asahan, Rembia, Kesidang, Bemban, and Duyong, among others," he said in an interview on Monday (Nov 15).

       Wong said a female chameleon at the sanctuary named Lily laid a clutch of eggs earlier this year.

       "Lily was one of the adult chameleons at the sanctuary but she passed away soon after laying eggs," he said.

       Wong said zoologists at the sanctuary extracted the eggs from the soil where Lily had buried them.

       "The eggs were taken out from the soil for artificial incubation immediately.

       "The biggest challenge in incubating the eggs was to achieve the desired level of temperature over a 208-day period of incubation," he said.

       Wong said the incubator was developed in-house by technicians of the sanctuary after factoring in the required temperature and humidity levels that were needed to incubate chameleon eggs.

       He noted that the eggs weighed about 3g each and were about 2cm long.

       Wong said the Veiled Chameleon species originated from the Middle East, mainly in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

       He added that an average lifespan of a healthy Veiled Chameleon is about five years.