The Camouflaging Chameleon

A chameleon, a skin changing lizard

Too scary to be kept as a pet.

chameleon
http://pixabay.com, CCO

Too tame to be named wild

Too territorial to be found in company

Too seeing to be caught unawares

Neither here nor there; yet present

-Short poem by Ofili Dumebi

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY THE CHAMELEON CAN CHANGE ITS COLOUR?

Here are the reasons why;

1. They have a set of special cells which are called 'The Iridophore Cells', which is present in their skin.

2. Nanocrystals are present within this special cells which can be rearranged in this chameleon to reflect different lengths of light wavelengths.

3. They do this to protect themselves, for adaptive purposes you can say.

   chameleon in colours
   http://pixabay.com, CCO

4. They do this to express themselves in varying emotions.

5. They do this to communicate with other chameleons.

6. They do this to regulate their body temperature.

7. They can change colours in as short a time as 20 seconds.

Other Fun Facts

1. They are sun - lovers ; lol melanin poppers? Am jus kidding but they live the warm climate areas (tropical or sub-tropical) .
   

   sun-loving chameleon
   http://pixabay.com , CCO

2. More than half of the entire 160-200 species of chameleon have their habitat in Madagascar.

3. Egg layers and Embryo deliverers; their beautiful nature is what we are still understanding

4. Chameleon is an English word, coined like most other words from a Latin word; it means "Lion Of The Ground"

5. They don't do parenting , so their young fend for themselves

6. It may have no ears or ear openings but trust me they are not deaf at all and can pick a range of sound frequency; I guess that's why we rarely see them.

7. Unlike Lizards, it can't regenerate or reproduce its tails once cut and they can project their tongue at a very high speed and reach its prey in less than 0.1 seconds (about 0.07 seconds); "The Ballistic Tongue".
   
   

   The Ballistic Tongue
   http://pixabay.com, CCO

8. They see as far as 10 meters and can see in both visible and ultraviolet light

9. The pupil peaks out from a gap in between the joining upper and lower eyelids.

10. Do you know based on size, the smaller species can eat crickets, grasshoppers and the very large species can eat lizards and young birds?

11. Inferred from above, it can be as large as 69 centimetres and as small as 15 millimetres.
    
    .

    small chameleon
    http://pixabay.com, CCO

12. They see at a 360 degree arc of vision and see at two directions at the same time, this adaptive characteristics make them the rarer.

13. They are well ornamented either with a crest on their head (crown) or a nasal protrusion or both.
    
    

    chameleon with a crest
    
    chameleon with nasal protrusion
    http://pixabay.com, CCO

In summary, I think they are very deliberate because even their walking steps is likened to a 'swaying leaf' further camouflaging their camouflaging nature.

References

1. Fun Chameleon Facts for Kids - Interesting Information about Chameleons
2. 25 Cool Chameleon Facts You'll Want To Know
3. Understanding Special Reptiles In A Bit
   (research work by my group)

Conclusion
Around us lies beauty, the more we see the less deficient or insufficient in the knowing, we become.