Male Chameleon defying science?

seanUTD

New Member
So I have a juvanile panther and he has done very well in getting in his bars early on and flares up pretty vibrantly for suc a young male panther but what is odd is that I know they don't change to match their environment and I know that females go dark brown and orange when they are carrying a clutch so then can anyone tell me why when I come home, and find my Cham... he is blended perfectly into a vine with several shades of brown completely matching his surroundings with even a green matching the leaves???
 
They will "blend" slightly. Also its because yours is still young. But you know sometimes I will stare in to my adult males cage and I cant find him to save my life. Then here he comes. Out of the plants. And I never saw him there. Its weird something so colorful can hide like that.
 
So I have a juvanile panther and he has done very well in getting in his bars early on and flares up pretty vibrantly for suc a young male panther but what is odd is that I know they don't change to match their environment and I know that females go dark brown and orange when they are carrying a clutch so then can anyone tell me why when I come home, and find my Cham... he is blended perfectly into a vine with several shades of brown completely matching his surroundings with even a green matching the leaves???

You are seeing just how effective "disruptive coloration" is. An unmarked, solid-colored animal is much easier to pick out against a complicated background than an animal with blotchy or striped markings regardless if the actual color matches or not. The markings, stripes, dots, etc. break up the cham's silhouette so it doesn't actually need to blend in color-wise in order to be less obvious. If some of his markings actually happen to match the leaf colors that's a bonus. All the cham needs to do to avoid being identified as a cham is to look like a patch of other things.
 
Back
Top Bottom