Ideas?

[clairebear]

Hi everyone so since we are all here mainly because we love chameleons, find them super interesting and i would imagine with all the people on here there will be quite a good collective amount of knowledge on chameleons.
So i study an animal behavior degree in the uk and we have to do a behavioral project where we pick an animal and do research into what study's have been done and decide on our own study to carry out.
I chose chameleons for obvious reasons i.e i love them I have done tons of research on there care and a bit on there behavior and i just got my own so it makes perfect sense study a chameleon.
My project is observational so i will not be change there environment or looking at food preference.
I wanted to study colour change since its such a interesting topic and one that's been debated.
I would like any suggestions on how i could study colour change in relation to behavior in a simple way which will be as simple as it can be.
If anyone has any suggestions i would really appreciate the input thanks

 

[Jamire]

The only thing I can recommend that I can call back from my lab days is that for observations you need to keep your subject as sterile and as in-dynamic as possible.

Make sure you have some time to establish a control.

Then you can add in elements to study, and record the differences.

Im sure you knew this

 

[clairebear]

The only thing I can recommend that I can call back from my lab days is that for observations you need to keep your subject as sterile and as in-dynamic as possible.

Make sure you have some time to establish a control.

Then you can add in elements to study, and record the differences.

Im sure you knew this

forgive me but could you explain what you mean?

 

[Jamire]

In order for you to "study colour change in relation to behavior in a simple way" you must establish a controlled environment in which you know what behavior is occurring in a controlled state, so you record that as a "ground-zero".

You then change the environment to alter his behavior and record what changes.

You need a starting point to base your observations off of.

*You don't necessarily have to do this, but it will better organize your idea's. For instance, if you just record that one day after lots of silkworms and handling (or other parameters) his colour changes "in such a way". You wont be able to prove that it was the silkworms and handling that made him change a certain way.

Sorry if this is a little wordy, Im not sure how in-depth you want to go into this project. I would recommend trying to find some professional scholarly articles to look up on similar research projects and see what they do. They are very hard to find (the good ones) so lots of research!

 

[fathertime79]

Leave the environment plain for a set amount of time and record the color. After that, add a new color (I would recommend a realistic color for the cham like a shade of brown) and observe if the cham tends to favor that color if it changes at all. Then you can do some outrageous color like red to see if the chameleon will change to that color during that period of observation. It's a really simplified experiment but it can get the point across and it is really easy to do with pictures, observations and minimum stress to the cham. The big thing is not to stress him or you are going to see his stress colors and not colors for mimicking if they have any.

Hope this helps!

 

[Jamire]

^what he said, except try not to shock him by showing him wild colors or strange things. Even though it may look fun to a casual observer this is stress to your guy. Feel bad for this guy... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scexMmiS99E

 

[FlChamMom]

Leave the environment plain for a set amount of time and record the color. After that, add a new color (I would recommend a realistic color for the cham like a shade of brown) and observe if the cham tends to favor that color if it changes at all. Then you can do some outrageous color like red to see if the chameleon will change to that color during that period of observation. It's a really simplified experiment but it can get the point across and it is really easy to do with pictures, observations and minimum stress to the cham. The big thing is not to stress him or you are going to see his stress colors and not colors for mimicking if they have any.

Hope this helps!

Those paint commercials though cute are unfortunately wrong... Your chameleon does not change color to mimic his surroundings. Now some chameleons react negatively to some colors so I guess you could see a stress change if you showed one of those colors.

 

[clairebear]

Leave the environment plain for a set amount of time and record the color. After that, add a new color (I would recommend a realistic color for the cham like a shade of brown) and observe if the cham tends to favor that color if it changes at all. Then you can do some outrageous color like red to see if the chameleon will change to that color during that period of observation. It's a really simplified experiment but it can get the point across and it is really easy to do with pictures, observations and minimum stress to the cham. The big thing is not to stress him or you are going to see his stress colors and not colors for mimicking if they have any.

Hope this helps!

That is exactly the kind of experiment i wanted to do, however i am not allowed to change his environment as it is too late to do so because you have to fill in a special form to get permission from a welfare committee at college so i will only be able to do an observational study for example watch him for ten hours throughout a week and see how often his colour changes naturally but I cant think of a way of explaining why they change without attributing a cause which is not a legitimate result finding because you are not allowed to attribute a reason for a behavior as it is not a definitive proof. for exaple if he changed to black and i recorded it and said it is because he is stressed, i would be saying he was stressed but its not a scientific result because i cant prove why he changes colour.

 

[Jamire]

Well if you cant prove why his colour changes then you don't have a lot you can report. Can you feed him? Record his mood based on different types of prey?

 

[clairebear]

Well if you cant prove why his colour changes then you don't have a lot you can report. Can you feed him? Record his mood based on different types of prey?

no but maybe i could see if there is a pattern to his colour change as in how many times does he change? which colours does he change to most and then tie it in with research on and theory on what the change is for?
or record when he changes colour and see if he seems to dislpay certain colours in certain parts of his enclosure?

 

[fathertime79]

no but maybe i could see if there is a pattern to his colour change as in how many times does he change? which colours does he change to most and then tie it in with research on and theory on what the change is for?
or record when he changes colour and see if he seems to dislpay certain colours in certain parts of his enclosure?

You have a much harder path ahead of you but not impossible.

I've noticed pattern changes in my veiled cham as he does different things around his enclosure. When he's asleep, he turns an emerald green. When he's hunting, he puffs up and has his dark stripes with this bright areas really showing prominently. When he is basking, he has his duller colors showing and he's in a relaxed state.

The way you would want to tackle this problem would be empirically. You would need to be able to quantify how many times you saw these state changes.

 

[FlChamMom]

Why don't you pick one reason that they change color, for example temperature changes and make your observations based on the color the cham is showing and the temp he is currently in. I have a heat gun, but if you don't you can put small digital meters in different areas of the cage to record temps for basking, bottom of the cage, free range areas, etc. Your control group could be his resting color displayed in the ambient temperature zone- middle of the cage. I would think trying to test color based on mood would be next to impossible- who even knows what those guys are thinking?

 

[Jamire]

That's a good idea. Note as he thermoregulates up and down the tank what colors he makes. A different times of day. Before/after feeding. Find the variables you can use and assess them

 

[clairebear]

You have a much harder path ahead of you but not impossible.

I've noticed pattern changes in my veiled cham as he does different things around his enclosure. When he's asleep, he turns an emerald green. When he's hunting, he puffs up and has his dark stripes with this bright areas really showing prominently. When he is basking, he has his duller colors showing and he's in a relaxed state.

The way you would want to tackle this problem would be empirically. You would need to be able to quantify how many times you saw these state changes.

Yeah ive notice mine changes emerald green when he sleeps too and shows different colours when basking and other things etc and ive only had him since sunday weird isnt it, thanks i was thinking the same

 

[clairebear]

Why don't you pick one reason that they change color, for example temperature changes and make your observations based on the color the cham is showing and the temp he is currently in. I have a heat gun, but if you don't you can put small digital meters in different areas of the cage to record temps for basking, bottom of the cage, free range areas, etc. Your control group could be his resting color displayed in the ambient temperature zone- middle of the cage. I would think trying to test color based on mood would be next to impossible- who even knows what those guys are thinking?

THANKYOU i actually had thaught of this idea too but i wasnt sure how it would work you made it loads clearer for me

 

[clairebear]

also i have a temp gun