Kirindy Forest chameleon
In Episode 3 of Big Little Journeys a Madagascan chameleon makes the journey of her lifetime.
Location: Kirindy Forest, Madagascar
In Madagascar a match-stick sized chameleon faces the journey of her lifetime to find a mate and lay her eggs before time runs out.
Journey distance: 500 metres over a lifetime
Destination: To find a mate in the treetops, and lay her eggs on the forest floor, before she dies. Hers, like every chameleon of her species, is the journey of an entire lifetime from birth to death.
For half of the year there are no adults and all that remains are thousands of eggs beneath the soil. Here they will wait through the harsh dry season, until the rains return when they will hatch en masse.
Weight & Size: 3 - 9 grams. She begins life half the size of a match-stick and grows to be as long as a human finger.
Top Speed: 1 metre per hour
Threats:
- Snakes stalk her in her sleep but she is sensitive to their vibrations and escapes by falling back to the forest floor.
- Hognosed snakes have evolved shovel-like noses to dig up chameleon eggs - so she must wait for the coast to be clear before laying hers.
- Pygmy owls and tiny lemurs will snaffle her up.
- Climate change - The chameleon's life cycle is closely synchronised with the seasons and if that should change too rapidly it could be devastating.
Superpowers:
- Tree climbing. She can scale giant trees - over 150 times her body length, the equivalent of a human scaling the Empire State Building. Her feet swivel in all directions, helping her to clings to cracks as she climbs.
- The skills of an assassin! Her eyes search almost 360 degrees to lock onto prey and she can fire a tongue twice the length of her body and faster than a fighter jet.
- Her colours aid in camouflage - when she is young she is brown and blends into the forest floor. As an adult her greener appearance helps her to hide amongst the leaves. Her full spectrum of adult colours however are mostly for communication including a crimson spot which signifies that she is ready to mate. She can actively change her colours from green to black to warn others to keep away.
