Dear Breeders and Keepers,
In recent months, there has been much concern over the responsibility of breeders to uphold accuracy and transparency in their breedings in order to best guarantee purity of morph, locality, subspecies and species and, simultaneously, maintain genetic variability. Amid the growing concerns about hybridization, inbreeding depression, outbreeding depression, and loss of purity, a group of keepers and breeders, organized and headed by Jason Descamps, have been working to design and develop an online database by which registered members can record their animals and their breedings. This system is designed in such a way as to be able to track and view lineage charts and help offset recent concerns about the endurance of captive propagation of chameleons. I am pleased to announce that this effort has finally come to the point where we feel the system is ready for use by the general chameleon community.
Unfortunately, the system is only as good as the integrity of those using the system. In order for this database to work as it is intended, keepers and breeders must register and honestly represent their animals and breedings. Furthermore, for optimal benefit to all breeders, we encourage individuals selling breeding stock and progeny to promote the system use by asking their buyers to register so that the animals in the database can be transferred to the new owner, thereby maintaining the accuracy of the data.
The database has been designed so it is easy to use. When entering an animal, after logging into their username, there is a function to enter a chameleon. Here, the breeder/owner can select the species, enter its morph or locality, enter its birth/acquisition date, sex, origin (WC, CB, CH, FR, etc.), the status of the animal (active, juvenile, deceased or retired), the willingness to discuss breeding loan and even a picture of the animal. Once entered, the animal is given a unique identification tag for use in lineage trees. To enter information on the parents of a registered animal and ensure completeness of the entry, the owner must enter the identification number of the sire and dam. Since the owners of the sire and dam might enter their animal after one has entered their progeny, this can be done after initial listing of the animal. For this reason, we hope that all users will encourage and ask the breeders of their animals to register in the database and begin using the system.
Among other functions of the database, individuals can search the database for breeders with unrelated animals in order to discuss breeding. To protect the privacy of the users, members searching the database are unable to see any person information on listed breeders. Contact is made through the site which forwards email to the breeder who can then privately contact the sender as they see fit. Additionally, we have incorporated a forum system for general questions and question regarding the use of the database.
Since the site has numerous functions which would take far to long to describe, I hope you all will register and learn about its functions. Since the purpose of this system is the long term preservation of the data, there is a small, one time registration fee of $5 per user. After registering, the user can enter as many animals as they wish. This fee is for hosting fees and other such expenses directly related to the continuing upholding of the system. We feel this minimal cost is acceptable and vital to ensure a long-lasting benefit to the chameleon community. For final information about the policies of the database, we ask that you view the Terms and Conditions outlined during the registration process.
On behalf of Jason Descamps and the rest of the team working on this project, I’d like to invite you all to register and begin to take a proactive role in the long term preservation of the propagation and management of chameleons in captivity. To begin, visit the site and register at:
http://www.chameleondatabase.com/
Regards,
Chris Anderson
CCBTD
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