Chameleons JUMP!

[DesertChameleon]

Been a while since I’ve posted and I don’t have photos of the deed but Aquaman jumped off of his enclosure today. I thought he fell but I know what I saw, he leapt a few inches off the cage onto the floor emitting a soft thud. Although he fell on carpet, I was worried he may have hurt himself as that was a 6 foot drop.

I approached him and he climbed onto me as normal. I offered him a worm and he ate. Sprayed some water on his cage and he drank. Cranked up the heat in the room and he was bolting around as usual.

Why would he jump? Has he been doing this when I’m not home? He has a free range setup and mostly stays outside of his enclosure. Do chameleons normally just jump down from high places? It looked like he leapt forward with arms out and just softly thudded on the ground I kid you not it was like lizard parkour.

 

[DesertChameleon]

Aquaman enjoying a toasty 80 degrees in this gloomy weather.

 

[MissSkittles]

I haven’t heard of nor witnessed jumping without cause. When feeling threatened or very stressed, they will jump/fall as a last ditch attempt to escape the threat. A couple of mine have done that while walking thru the house to take them outside. (I rarely take them out as a result). They do know how to fall as safely as possible, and while injuries are a real risk, it isn’t as common as we fear.
Had you done anything that may have frightened him? Moved too quickly? Wearing red? Reached for him? Did he see another animal? Anything else at all that you can think of?

 

[MissSkittles]

I should add - both of my panther boys are ‘friendly’ and almost always will come out onto my hand when I open their enclosures. However, every now and then for no discernible reason they will fire up and karate pose like they don’t know me or are scared of me.

 

[DesertChameleon]

I haven’t heard of nor witnessed jumping without cause. When feeling threatened or very stressed, they will jump/fall as a last ditch attempt to escape the threat. A couple of mine have done that while walking thru the house to take them outside. (I rarely take them out as a result). They do know how to fall as safely as possible, and while injuries are a real risk, it isn’t as common as we fear.
Had you done anything that may have frightened him? Moved too quickly? Wearing red? Reached for him? Did he see another animal? Anything else at all that you can think of?

I was just in bed as usual many feet away from his enclosure just observing him like I normally do in the morning. He had just finished basking, he was looking down at something and out of nowhere he just jumped. He has on many occasions made his way to the floor to climb up the TV stand or another plant, but he’ll climb down to do it, first time ever seeing him jump down. He didn’t show any signs of stress just wanted to keep moving and even made his way to me afterwards as I approached him.

 

[MissSkittles]

I was just in bed as usual many feet away from his enclosure just observing him like I normally do in the morning. He had just finished basking, he was looking down at something and out of nowhere he just jumped. He has on many occasions made his way to the floor to climb up the TV stand or another plant, but he’ll climb down to do it, first time ever seeing him jump down. He didn’t show any signs of stress just wanted to keep moving and even made his way to me afterwards as I approached him.

If nothing spooked him, then I have no idea.

 

[kinyonga]

I’ve told this story once before on here…but I can find it so…
I used to have a fischer’s multi male that would routinely jump from the top of the curtains to the floor rather than climb down the curtain. He would splay/spread his legs out and puff up like a balloon and you would hear a “splat” type sound as he hit the floor. He never injured himself doing that.

Just think about it…they live in trees…sometimes in the wild, they must misstep and fall…sometimes they must get blown off…sometimes they might get pushed off by another chameleon…they seem to survive…and many of those falls would be from higher distances. It’s more a matter of what they hit by accident on the way down IMHO than the fall in most cases.

 

[MissSkittles]

Interesting (and cute). Little thrill seekers doing some base-jumping. Wheeeee

 

[kinyonga]

Jump…

 

[kinyonga]

Just for fun…

 

[nightanole]

There is an older video of pet jacksons jumping off 4-6ft plants for fun. They just climp up, jump into the leaves below, and then do it again.

 

[DesertChameleon]

I’ve told this story once before on here…but I can find it so…
I used to have a fischer’s multi male that would routinely jump from the top of the curtains to the floor rather than climb down the curtain. He would splay/spread his legs out and puff up like a balloon and you would hear a “splat” type sound as he hit the floor. He never injured himself doing that.

Just think about it…they live in trees…sometimes in the wild, they must misstep and fall…sometimes they must get blown off…sometimes they might get pushed off by another chameleon…they seem to survive…and many of those falls would be from higher distances. It’s more a matter of what they hit by accident on the way down IMHO than the fall in most cases.

Whew how very re-assuring, I was scared when it happened, but he did it so nonchalantly I felt no need to panic for some reason. In the back of my head I was scared he had broken something because I’ve read so much about it. I just had a whole day researching chameleons jumping and I’m glad I found this post today. Always learn something new about these amazing reptiles.

 

[DesertChameleon]

Jump…

I saw this exact video

 

[DesertChameleon]

Off Topic but his monstera just put out its biggest leaf to date. In the winter too. Cheers to the upcoming New Year wish you all and your reptile buddies a good one.