Tamatave Chameleons
Tamatave males fire up red broken by white and rest a duller green, while females look the same whatever their locale. Maroantsetra males are red too, so buy a Tamatave on its parents rather than its colour.
About Tamatave
The Tamatave panther chameleon (Furcifer pardalis) is a locale named for the port city of Toamasina (Tamatave) on the east coast of Madagascar. Because a locale is a wild population named for where it came from, calling an animal Tamatave is a claim about its ancestry. These wild Tamataves live in areas of cultivated ground and around gardens near the city. The red of the males is why keepers buy the locale.
Appearance
The male turns red over his body with white markings to show off. He is much quieter when resting in a muted green that hides the display. Because the amount of red and how clearly it shows varies from one animal to the next, expect a range instead of one fixed look.
A Tamatave is not made by red alone. Maroantsetra, which is further north on the same coast, also produces red males. The Mahavelona form just north of Tamatave has males that are pale grey-blue to almost white. The name of a red male comes from his parents, not his colour.
No one can tell a female is a Tamatave by eye since females look alike in every locale in shades of tan, brown, pink or salmon. You must go on her records alone to find her locale.
Genetics
Tamatave is a locale. It has no het, no super form and no inheritance mode. Wild panther populations are so strongly structured genetically that splitting the species has been proposed. A line stays Tamatave only if every animal in it is Tamatave. If you breed in another locale, the young are a locale cross. These cannot be bred back to pure. An undeclared cross can slip into a line sold as pure because females carry no locale colour. This is why breeders state any mix when they sell and keep locales apart. Ask the seller for how far back the line's locale is recorded and for both parents.