CHAMELEONOLOGY: Chameleon Life History

Amongst chameleons, some species of the genera Calumma, Chamaeleo and Trioceros possess a strange structure on the back of their heads: the occipital flaps.

A new montane chameleon from the Bale Mts., Ethiopia, Trioceros wolfgangboehmei has been described today...

Fantastic adventure to find them and observe their life story even in a country that turned almost all coastline to a beach/hotel/holiday stripe emarginated by destroyed and modified biotopes...

Chameleons are fantastic beings that if respected and observed us very interesting stories and explain smany things, normally hidden from us.

Humans and chameleons have much in common. Especially those of us who like them and keep them and/or study them.

...You will hear people shouting from all corners...

The Yemen Chameleon (Veiled Chameleon) is one of the most popular chameleon species in captivity today. Yet it is one of the mostly misunderstood and miss handled a Chameleons in captivity. Let us please finally understand it's climatic requirements to make them comfortable and thriving in captivity and not suffering...

It is defined by some of the most competent people like this (IUCN):

Let us use the scientific names instead of vernacular ones...

Meller's Chameleons are absolutely stunning animals, unfortunately, in captivity, lots of myths are parotted, that are not true or only partly and in fact are a barrier for spreading this stunning species in captivity...

Furcifer pardalis is a superspecies: a group of populations of various level of mutual relatedness: some are genetically so distant from each other that they can be considered a separate species, some are very close to each other. This study just opens the door to our understanding of their differences in size, color, life history and gives first...

List of chameleon species and subspecies

Chmaleleons of the bigger size categories (like Chamaeleo calyptratus, arabicus, zeylanicus; Furcifer pardalis, oustaleti, verrucosus; Trioceros melleri etc.) feed in the wild predominantly on small flying insects, pollinators. They are however capable of eating much bigger prey: a lizard, small rodent or bird...

Chameleons inhabit naturally-autochtoneously three continents:
Africa incl. Madagascar and many off-shore Islands (vast majority of species)Asia (from ear East to India and Sri Lanka) and Europe (here only some eastern Mediterranean islands)...

By: David Prötzel, Mark D. Scherz, Fanomezana M. Ratsoavina, Miguel Vences, Frank Glaw

A new study analyzed the karyotypes of six Furcifer species and finds chromosomal variability among the species, with diploid (2n) chromosomal counts of 22-28 and distinct Z and W sex chromosomes with female heterogamety in all species, however four species expressed multiple neo-sex chromosomes.

A new study presents a detailed examination of the best preserved chameleon fossil skull known, using micro-CT scans, geometric morphometrics and phylogenetic methods. An early Miocene fossil from Rusinga Island (early Miocene, Lake Victoria, Kenya), is assigned to genus Calumma, opening a wide field for interpretation of the origin of chameleons...

Chameleons do NOT use their ability of active color change to "blend" with their environment

Well, YES, itnis just not as visible as in the mountains. Check the pic in the morning made from Ankify island around 7AM and the second from Nosy Komba at 9AM...

A population confined to a tiny, round, volcanic island, called also Nosy Ambariovato (approx 3miles across only), separated from Nosy Be and Ankify by few miles narrow straits, is small and unique...

When exposed to new environment, chameleons sometimes lick off branches.

Very often, people are mistaken to consider Yemen chameleons to be inhabitants of desert regions with hot and dry climate.

The most popular and frequent subspecies kept in captivity is T.j.xantholophus, originating from the eastern foothils if Mt Kenya in Kenya.

It is a common. Belief, that heavily dehydrated chameleons have eyes sunken in the eyeholes.

The desired "true blue" color in Nosy Be is highly valued and many breeders claim they have a breeding lineage of it...

By Petr Necas & Bill Strand, May 2018

The answer is YES, though it is a very rare occurrence. As a rule, chameleons DO NOT get fat.

Furcifer pardalis aka panther chameleon is a complex of forms of different level of mutual relationship. Some are genetically very close and represent jusg local populations, some are distinct at a level of different subspecies or even species.
The variability is well expressed in the color palettes of adult males when "fired up": the local forms...

An important issue, almost ignored in the chameleon husbandry is the question of the direction of the light.

Only few topics in Chamaeleoculture are so controversial such as the debates about UV. During my most recent expeditions to Africa and Arabia (incl. Socotra), I made many observations and measurements...