Wildlife in Lebanon - Types of Lebanese Animals
Meller's Chameleon
Common Name: Meller's Chameleon Scientific Name: Trioceros melleri Average Life Span In The Wild: 12 years Size relative to a teacup: IUCN Red List Status:? Least concernLeast Concern Extinct
Current Population Trend: UnknownThe Meller's chameleon is the largest of the chameleons not native to Madagascar. Their stout bodies can grow to be up to two feet long and weigh more than a pound.
Unique "Horn"Meller's distinguish themselves from their universally bizarre-looking cousins with a single small horn protruding from the front of their snouts. This and their size earn them the common name "giant one-horned chameleon."
Population RangeThey are fairly common in the savanna of East Africa, including Malawi, northern Mozambique, and Tanzania. Almost one-half of the world's chameleons live on the island of Madagascar.
Color ChangingAs with all chameleons, Meller's will change colors in response to stress and to communicate with other chameleons. Their normal appearance is deep green with yellow stripes and random black spots. Females are slightly smaller, but are otherwise indistinguishable from males.
DietThey subsist on insects and small birds, using their camouflage and a lightning-fast, catapulting tongue, which can be up to 20 inches long, to ambush prey.
In CaptivityExotic pet enthusiasts often attempt to keep Meller's chameleons as pets. However, they are highly susceptible to even the slightest level of stress and are very difficult to care for in captivity. In the wild, they can live as long as 12 years.
Watch Chameleon Erupt In Color 'as If Uttering Her Last Words' In Her Final Moments Before Death
A pictured captured of the underside of the chameleon spotted on the branches in a tree moments before it died.
In dramatic new footage, a chameleon erupts in stunning colors while in the throes of death. Using time-lapse photography, researchers captured the colorful last few hours of the reptile's short life — and the remarkable changes that took place in that time.
"In her last moments, her skin erupts with color, as if uttering her last words," narrator Bumper Robinson said in the clip.
The Labord's chameleon (Furcifer labordi) was filmed in the Kirindy Forest in western Madagascar. This species has one of the shortest known life spans of any four-legged vertebrate, living just four to five months after hatching; they spend longer developing inside an egg (around eight to nine months) than they do outside it.
A pictured captured of the underside of a chameleon spotted on the branches of a tree moments before it died. Its skin a burst of color.
In the new PBS series "Big Little Journeys," filmmakers followed the female Labord's chameleon as she laid her eggs and covered them with sand to protect them from the effects of the approaching dry season.
Related: Pangolin courtship ritual and birth of a 'pangopup' captured in incredible, rare footage
"The females put all their energy into producing eggs that need to get through the long drought while underground," series producer Valeria Fabbri-Kennedy and scientist Chris Raxworthy, a herpetologist at the American Museum of Natural History, told Live Science in an email. "They die within just a few hours of having laid them, as they have few resources left."
The team had hoped to capture the full life cycle of this little-known species — and realized one individual "had slowed and seemed to be fading," they said. They set up a time-lapse camera, and when they returned two hours later, they found the chameleon dead.
"On reviewing the footage, we were amazed and moved by the colorful spectacle they had filmed — something that the scientists have never observed in the wild before," Fabbri-Kennedy and Raxworthy said.
Chameleons' skin changes color by expanding and contracting special cells that contain nanocrystals — a process that alters how they reflect light. In the clip, the chameleon's skin twinkles and changes color like a fireworks display.
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"During death, nervous signals continue to transmit and to change the shape of the skin cells, creating the chaotic technicolor patterns that were captured," Fabbri-Kennedy and Raxworthy said.
This extreme survival strategy of programmed death — in which females die after laying eggs — is seen in many other species, including octopuses and moths.
Among Labord's chameleons, the males also die before the dry season arrives, having expended all their resources fighting for the chance to reproduce. This means that for two-thirds of the year, the entire population exists in eggs buried underground. "Adults have not evolved to survive it [the dry season]," Fabbri-Kennedy and Raxworthy said.
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Chameleon Bursts Into Pulsating Color Just Before Dying
"...As if uttering her last words." Diva DownWhat a way to go.
A new PBS documentary titled "Big Little Journeys" captured the final moments of a rare Madagascan chameleon as she broke into a vibrant, pulsating display of color just moments before her death — a magnificent, if tragic, sight never previously observed in the wild.
"In her last moments, her skin erupts with color," series narrator Bumper Robinson says in the video, in which the reptile's skin can be seen lighting up in mesmerizing patches of reds, purples, blues, and yellows, "as if uttering her last words."
A Lizard LifePer Live Science, this gone-too-soon reptilian was a Labord's chameleon, a species that's long fascinated scientists due to its extremely short lifespan. Most chameleon species can live naturally for anywhere from two to seven years, with larger species like the Parson's chameleon pushing upwards of ten to 14. After hatching, Labord's chameleons only live four to five months — as Live Science points out, that's one of the shortest known lifespans of any four-legged vertebrate, let alone the shortest of any other chameleon species.
Fascinatingly, according to the researchers, the Labord lizards' deathly display is believed to be caused by their still-firing nervous systems, which continue to send signals to skin cells in the critters' last moments.
"During death," Fabbri-Kennedy and Raxworthy told Live Science, "nervous signals continue to transmit and to change the shape of the skin cells, creating the chaotic technicolor patterns that were captured."
EggxietyBut the drama of this herpetological diva's death — which was filmed in the Kirindy Forest in western Madagascar — doesn't end with the technicolor show. Female Labord chameleons die shortly after laying their eggs; in the clip, this female can be seen using her last few ounces of energy to bury her fragile eggs in the sand to protect them from the approaching dry season.
"The females put all their energy into producing eggs that need to get through the long drought while underground," series producer Valeria Fabbri-Kennedy and American Museum of Natural History herpetologist Chris Raxworthy told Live Science. "They die within just a few hours of having laid them, as they have few resources left."
And though they can't chalk it up to the egg-laying of it all, the male Labord chameleons live just as long as the females do — meaning that for the majority of their development, the Labord population's next generation is only as protected as a layer of sand. Anxiety-inducing, but also kind of metal!
Anyway. RIP, queen. Your last moments were spectacular — and here's to the next generation.
More on lizards: Asexual Lizards Stressed by Military Overeating to Cope, Scientists Say
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