The Paradox of Being Seen by Not Being Seen
For centuries, chameleons were treated as a textbook example of deception, believed to change color according to whatever background they touched.
For decades, specialists including myself have fought to eradicate that myth. The fact that chameleons often resemble their surroundings is the result of evolutionary camouflage and ontogenetic or moment‑driven proactive color change. The main purpose of color change is communication; secondary roles include thermoregulation and antipredatory effects. Now the chameleons wake up and remind us that even old beliefs may contain a grain of truth. A recent study on C. dilepis showed that, in a weak yet detectable form, melanocytes do reflect the hues of the environment. Walking at night in Ambohitantely, I witnessed what Calumma cf. gastrotaenia wanted to show me: individuals sleeping on green sticks were green, and those on yellow bamboo were yellow.
Nothing in nature is absolute. We must remain open to new observations, even when they prove us partly wrong.
