Help

[clairebear]

why do chameleons change colour as they eat mine goes bright greens is this an emotional response to food.
I cant fnd any studies on behaviour stimulating colour chage and i need info for a assignment

 

[Carlton]

why do chameleons change colour as they eat mine goes bright greens is this an emotional response to food.
I cant fnd any studies on behaviour stimulating colour chage and i need info for a assignment

Chams change color in response to stimuli or stressers. The pigment cells in the layers of their skin fire at different levels in response to different types of stimuli. Excitement during successful hunting (with the prize in its mouth) is a type of stress...happens to be a good stresser. The point is, when the cham is reacting to something the body releases stress hormones which in turn trigger the color change. Think about darkening in response to basking heat, displaying vibrant colors when a rival appears, etc. The more extreme the reaction the more extreme the color shift can be. A mildly upset male may show one level of display coloration. The madder he gets (depending on which species of course) the darker and more intense their markings and the borders of markings tend to get. The darker black borders tend to get larger and diffuse into the other colors.

 

[clairebear]

Chams change color in response to stimuli or stressers. The pigment cells in the layers of their skin fire at different levels in response to different types of stimuli. Excitement during successful hunting (with the prize in its mouth) is a type of stress...happens to be a good stresser. The point is, when the cham is reacting to something the body releases stress hormones which in turn trigger the color change. Think about darkening in response to basking heat, displaying vibrant colors when a rival appears, etc. The more extreme the reaction the more extreme the color shift can be. A mildly upset male may show one level of display coloration. The madder he gets (depending on which species of course) the darker and more intense their markings and the borders of markings tend to get. The darker black borders tend to get larger and diffuse into the other colors.

Thankyou so much i already understand the physiology of skin colour changes and i know they respond emotionally but i was having trouble figuring out how to explain the link of behavior to color change. This helped my head fee so much clearer.
I am doing a study on how behavior stimulates colour change.
Is an emotional response a behavior? sorry to sound dumb but my problem is im trying to explain the results of my findings, which where he changed color most when feeding an basking. so im trying to write my rsults show a link between behavior as feeding and watching food stimulated the most consistent change and then talk about how this proves that he changed color because of the behavior.
How do i explain this?

 

[Carlton]

Thankyou so much i already understand the physiology of skin colour changes and i know they respond emotionally but i was having trouble figuring out how to explain the link of behavior to color change. This helped my head fee so much clearer.
I am doing a study on how behavior stimulates colour change.
Is an emotional response a behavior? sorry to sound dumb but my problem is im trying to explain the results of my findings, which where he changed color most when feeding an basking. so im trying to write my rsults show a link between behavior as feeding and watching food stimulated the most consistent change and then talk about how this proves that he changed color because of the behavior.
How do i explain this?

Ah, I see your question a little more clearly. So you are trying to tie a specific action to color change, not to the chemical/biological reaction going on in the skin. Problem is, color change is not really under the cham's conscious control and it is triggered by more than emotion. I doubt the cham could override the involuntary color change triggered by heat for example. It happens regardless if the cham climbs up to a basking spot or its keeper moves the light down to where the cham happens to be. If I understand it right what we tend to think of as a behavior is something the animal chooses to do in response to something. Shooting its tongue when it sees food is a behavior (instinctive or learned), but the color change that happens to go along with shooting the tongue may be more of an involuntary side effect. Maybe what you are trying to explain is how a behavior releases stress hormones which in turn trigger chromatophores to expand or contract and change the color. Is that right? Sorry, I'm wading very deep into water I don't know much about.

 

[misshissingroaches]

oh god! claire bear?! as in from open classroom?! hey its grace!!

 

[clairebear]

Ah, I see your question a little more clearly. So you are trying to tie a specific action to color change, not to the chemical/biological reaction going on in the skin. Problem is, color change is not really under the cham's conscious control and it is triggered by more than emotion. I doubt the cham could override the involuntary color change triggered by heat for example. It happens regardless if the cham climbs up to a basking spot or its keeper moves the light down to where the cham happens to be. If I understand it right what we tend to think of as a behavior is something the animal chooses to do in response to something. Shooting its tongue when it sees food is a behavior (instinctive or learned), but the color change that happens to go along with shooting the tongue may be more of an involuntary side effect. Maybe what you are trying to explain is how a behavior releases stress hormones which in turn trigger chromatophores to expand or contract and change the color. Is that right? Sorry, I'm wading very deep into water I don't know much about.

No i think you are completely on the right lines im trying to get it straight in my head so i can write a summary of the resultsnand write a disccussion linking what i found to previous studys.
you right i am trying to show how behavior triggers colour change whether its conscious or involuntary, ive explained how it works with the chromatophores and that it is linked to the endocrine system. but now i need to talk about how the behavior he performs is triggering colour change, so you first awnser really helped because you said he is excited i.e stimulated by food which in turn triggers the physiological response.