Chameleon Color Change Communicates Conquest and Capitulation...

[kinyonga]

https://repository.asu.edu/attachments/158090/content/Ligon_asu_0010E_15228.pdf

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

I didn't read the entire163 pages. From the title, I had this mental image of a male veiled rearing up on his hind legs and beating his little chameleon chest following successful mating...

... but the author went a whole different way.

When I got to:

Lastly, when I experimentally manipulated the external appearance of chameleons, I found that "dishonestly" signaling individuals (i.e. those whose behavior did not match their manipulated color) received higher aggression from unpainted opponents. The increased aggression received by dishonest signalers suggests that social costs play an important role in maintaining the honesty of rapid color change signals in veiled chameleons.

I had to stop.

This dude painted chameleons to induce them to fight‽

 

[kinyonga]

How else would you test it?
Seems to me painted "models" of female Chamaeleon chamaeleons were used to test males' mating reactions.

Found it...
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02769285

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

Sure, a model or one of those robotic "Spy in the Wild" thingies.

But I wouldn't paint the little barstads [sic]! ?