SO, as many of you know (via my facebook post), we spotted a CHAMELEON yesterday! It was Matt's second time seeing the critter, but my first. Seeing a chameleon is sort of a big deal around here. Well, atleast it is for US anyway! According to www.Andalucia.com , chameleons have been in decline in the local area due to chemicals used to fumigate the local custard apple crop. The natural habitats of wild chameleons are also under heavy pressure from rapidly growing human populations. For this reason, the chameleon is now a protected species in Spain. There are even a few road signs here on the base that warn of crossing chameleons! AND STILL, we've lived here a year and a half and were YET to see one. Maybe it's that amazing camouflage??? :)
Yesterday on the way to lunch, we spotted the bright green guy crossing the road with JUST enough time to put it between the tires. I saw it swaying back and forth and I thought for sure it was just trying to determine whether it was going to run forward or backward. Matt, driving, yells "CHAMELEON!," I scream, and we swerve to miss him. There has GOT to be some sort of fine for hitting a protected species, right?
WELL, with my heart beating in my chest, I make Matt pull over and turn around to make sure we A) didn't kill the little guy, B) if he's still alive, escort him across the tar to safety, and C) once safe, get a PHOTO for the blog! :) (Priorities people, priorities.)
So we park the car on the opposite side of the road, a bit of a ways back from the busy intersection and Matt disappears behind a bush. He's gone for a few minutes, and cars are driving by, and I can't see him, and I'm thinking... "Oh no, this is taking MUCH too long. We either hit him, or he sprinted to safety and Matt is just searching the road to be sure he's gone." All of a sudden I see Matt appear on my side of the bush, SLOWLY walking toward the grass with a small creature wobbling back and forth just a foot or so in front of him. Apparently, the chameleon does NOT sprint. According to Matt, it has one speed and the "Oh, Sh*t, RUN!" speed is the exact same as the "Let's go for a stroll" speed. (It's no WONDER the thing relies so heavily on its changing colors to hide from predators!) So while I anxiously watched the clock tick ahead three minutes, Matt was just trying to prod the turtle-paced creature along. I've provided this helpful youtube video to further clarify the sloth-ness of this poor lizard.
I Love it! :)
ANYWAY, Once the green machine was back in the safety of the grass, Matt snapped a few quick pictures for me.
Seriously, this animal is pretty amazing. Why?
1. It's eyes can each move independently from each other a full 360-degree arc of vision around its body. You can see from Matt's pic that the lil guy has got one eye pointed backwards keeping an eye on the strange thing chasing him.
2. It's got neat feet. Acc'd to Wiki: "Chameleons are didactyl: on each foot the five toes are fused into a group of two and a group of three, giving the foot a tongs-like appearance. These specialized feet allow chameleons to grip tightly to narrow branches."
3. Its SUPER FAST tongue sort of makes up for its dreadfully slow body. Again, my trusty Wiki sources say that "The tongue extends out faster than human eyes can follow, at around 26 body lengths per second. The tongue hits the prey in about 30 thousandths of a second." HAH! Can you imagine being the prey of this creature. You're a bug and you see this thing coming, wobbling back and forth, and you laugh because you're like "HAHAHA, Like I need to be afraid of that thing... *WHAM* And then you're lunch. :)
4. Um HELLO?! It can freakin change COLORS!!!
So as you can probably tell, we were BOTH very excited to finally see this protected species. AND I'll be even more excited when Matt finally stops singing Karma Chameleon. :)
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