Chameleons seemed interesting to me because they could change their skin color. Not only is this useful, but it can be pretty cool. The way they look is also interesting in my opinion. I wanted to see what their behavior is. I want to know what their behavior is because I think it would be interesting.
Chameleons can hunt in the morning. This is because they got a muscle which spring-loads a collagen. This is used to catch mostly insects. The chameleon’s hunting performance is not affected by heat compared to other lizards. This makes the chameleons be able to hunt earlier than other lizards.
Chameleons tongues uses collagen. Other lizards’ tongues are slowed in cold temperature by nearly half. The chameleons were only slowed by 10 to 19 percent. Chameleons live in a wide range ofareas. Although uncoiling is faster for the chameleons, coiling the tongues take 42 to 63 percent slower. This is because the coiling action depends on muscles. Chameleons change colors for camouflaging and for social signaling. Chameleons use their camouflage to socialize with other chameleons. Chameleons will sometimes change colors toimpress female chameleons. Two male chameleons change colors to compete forthe female chameleon. Evolution does not just change camouflage for blending in. It was also for socializing. Chameleons change colors to avoid their predators. Chameleons change to darker colors when birds are near it. When snakes approach chameleons they turn lighter. This is because birds come from higher and usually see the chameleons in a darker background. Snakes come from below and see the chameleons from a lighter background. The behaviors I learned are pretty interesting. The chameleon’s ability to change colors is used for socializing too. Knowing that they hunt in the morning is also interesting. Knowing their camouflage patterns also helps me know how they respond to predators. These behavior patterns have been interesting for me.
Questions:
- Do you know of any other behaviors the chameleons act on?
- Are there any other threats to the chameleon?
- Where is the chameleon’s most common area?
In Africa- Ugandan culture have got alote of nomes about chameleons. This is mostly where by I recorgnise man as the most threat to chameleons.
Forexample if a pregnant woman come across a chameleon, the child she will produce will have bad luck, here she will make it possible to kill it and then given traditional harbs for drinking.
Traditional healers makes it possible to have chameleons with them. They hunt them, kill them, dry them, and keep/ stay with them as they use them to heal people.
Thus recorgnise/ call chameleons threats to chameleons.
http://www.virungasafaris.com
This article was really interesting! I’ve always thought that the way that chamelions change color was a cool way of hiding themselves. It blows my mind that they can change their color to match any surroundings that they are in in just a matter of seconds. Another thing that i find interesting about chamelions is that their tongues are so long! It’s ridiculous how long their tongues are and the way that they stretch their tongues out to catch bugs. I did a little research on this topic and i found some other interesting things that you could add to your research! http://www.chameleoninfo.com/Behavior.html
This blog has some good basic information about chameleons and their behavior. I would suggest that you added pictures and spell checked before publishing though. But, like you said, chameleons do change colors in different situations. They change color to fend of predators, attract mates, and to signal. The actual color changing is caused by the different layers in the skin. One of the inner layers of the skin scatters light and the top layer changes pigments, which explains why the chameleon is able to change colors. This is all controlled by the brain, no surprise there. If you want to learn more about pigments you can visit: http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/7I.html
Chameleons don’t only use there camouflage to blend in with their surroundings, but they also use it to attract mates and to try and scare rivals. Most important, though, is that they can change colors to do both if they need to. They can blend in to protect themselves and then change colors within a few seconds to scare a rival nearby. They can then change back to their surrounding color for protection. Also, as a competition of sorts, two chameleons will attempt to scare or out do the opponent by changing to their brightest colors, puffing out their throats, and trying to make themselves look as large as possible. They use these tactics to get noticed from a distance as well. The winner of these encounters will reduce their color to submissive colors, like grey and brown. If it is too close to call, then they will fight or try to show their strength by pushing the other chameleon. The loser of that will also turn to submissive colors. That is what I found on other interesting behaviors exhibited by chameleons.
My source: http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculum/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_standard&resultid=1&edition=&ts=C93BB0C774CCA2246F38A679FEB6EC5F_1333652448954&start=1&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B153757296