Where's the Chameleon?

Where's the chameleon? - This is a question often asked in our family...the reason being that we have often been privileged to share our garden, (and sometimes our house), with these little creatures. Being really expert at camouflage though, they can 'disappear' quicker than you can imagine. One minute they are there and the next they have disappeared!
It always causes excitement whenever we discover a new chameleon in the garden or re-discover one that had disappeared for a while.

As with any wild creature, you are not allowed to keep them as pets without a special licence. Because of this, and because we believe that wild creatures should be free, we don't keep chameleons as pets - though they do make fascinating ones! We do sometimes "keep" them for a few days just to watch and learn more about them and of course, just to enjoy these amazing little animals which are part of God's incredible creation. "Keeping" them usually means filling a vase or glass bottle with a bunch of leafy branches or twigs - usually from the plant the chameleon was found on - and then 'adding' the chameleon. :) They become tame very quickly, especially if you handle them a lot. They seem to find us as curious as we find them!

Although they spend much time sitting still on a branch basking in the sun or waiting for prey, and although they have a slow, swaying walk, they can move quite quickly when they want to! Add to this that they are masters at camouflage and can change colour to blend in with their surroundings - no wonder they can vanish so quickly. Our "house" chameleons often decide to explore and then what a time we have finding them! They love to climb the curtains and often we will find them perched on top of the curtain rail.

Chameleons are such fascinating little creatures and there is so much we could tell you about the ones we’ve known, but instead here are some photos we’d like to share…
                                        

This is a photo of a baby Flap-neck chameleon. Unfortunately our camera wasn’t working at the time and we had to use the cell phone to take a picture. This little creature stayed with us for about 3 weeks before it decided it was time to move on.

We decided to post the following pictures as they are some of the best we have of ‘our’ chameleons. This particular chameleon made it’s home in a large flower bed not far from our kitchen window at one of our previous houses.

Here is a photo of the creature - a full grown adult Flap-neck chameleon - 140mm long.

In the photo above, the chameleon is ready to catch a bee. It's always so interesting to watch a chameleon catch it's prey. The long tongue (which can be longer than the length of it's own body) shoots out at tremendous speed - actually faster than the human eye can follow, at about 26 body-lengths per second.. The tongue hits the prey in something like 30 thousandths of a second! That's fast!! The tip of the elastic tongue has something like a suction cup on the end of it. When the prey sticks to this, it is pulled back into the chameleons mouth and eaten.  

The chameleon changes colour in response to mood, light, tempreture or it's surroundings. They can blend in so very well with the surroundings and are very difficult to spot...There is a chameleon in the photo below, but "Where's the chameleon?" can you spot it? :)

"All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small,

 All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all."