(adventurous music)
(lizard hissing loudly)
- Lizards, our planet is home to nearly 5,000 species
but only chameleons are capable of this.
(adventurous music swells)
(dramatic sound)
Worldwide, there are more than 150 chameleon species,
and Africa is home to 19 of them.
During daylight hours,
these arboreal lizards can be very difficult to locate.
But at night when they're fast asleep
and dreaming of their next grasshopper snack,
the advantage goes to anyone with a good flashlight
and a keen eye for reptiles.
But if you like long, sticky tongues,
then this is the episode for you.
(crickets chirping together)
So what's perfect about this here
is we can stay out of the tall grasses
and look all along this dense underbrush.
Now, we know there are chameleons in this area,
it's just a matter of finding them.
Okay, so what's cool about this spot right here
is you've got a combination of two things
within the sand forest.
All of these long, slender grasses
are gonna be very important
when it comes to finding baby chameleons.
And this sand right here, you can see, is very, very fine.
Now, we've had a lot of rains
that have moved through recently.
Those rains will help instigate
the hatching of baby chameleons.
We're right hot in the middle of hatching season.
The females will lay their eggs
in this really, really soft sand.
And as they begin to hatch out, they come out,
and they're very susceptible to predators,
so they're always thinking, "Let me get higher up."
And what they will do at night is climb up to the tippy tops
of these grass stocks and hang there,
assuming that absolutely nothing can get them.
And in most cases, they're right.
But when it comes to finding them
and getting them in front of the cameras,
that's gonna be to our advantage
because they should stand out like little glowing grapes
on the tips of these grasses.
So let's keep moving and see if we can find some.
(gentle pensive music)
Oh, here we go!
Hot diggity dog, look who we've got here.
That is an absolutely teeny-tiny chameleon.
Now, the tactic here
is to actually snip the little piece of grass
that it is sleeping on.
That has got to be the teeny-tiniest,
most adorable lizard I have ever seen.
You, my little friend are an absolute superstar.
Now, if you look at the tail,
you can see it's prehensile nature
wrapped around that grass stalk.
And then those little, oven mitt-like feet
gripping and holding the body in place.
(gentle rhythmic music)
Now for us, spotting this chameleon was rather simple
because we knew what to look for.
But for any predator, it just looks like this lizard
is a part of the environment.
Alright buddy, I'm gonna gently
kinda wedge you into another grass stalk
so that we don't disturb the rest of your evening.
Get you balanced there, you'll be good to go.
Now that we found a baby chameleon,
the bigger ones are likely gonna be higher up.
So, investigating tree limbs
and hidden within especially leaves like this
is a perfect spot.
Oh, we got a snake.
(tense music)
Mario, is this a vine snake?
- [Mario] That is a twig snake.
- [Coyote] Oh, that's a twig snake.
- [Mario] Holy smokes, that's a super toxic snake.
- Okay.
Wow, look at the camouflage of this animal.
It looks completely like a vine,
perfectly interwound around this branch, down into here,
in complete stealth mode.
- [Mario] There's something sizable that it ate recently.
- [Coyote] Yeah, can you see that from there?
- [Mario] Yeah, I mean could very well be a chameleon.
- This is a super cool find.
I need to be extremely careful because like Mario said,
this is a very venomous species.
We'll talk about that in a second.
Let me just focus
to see if I can gently get it out of the tree here.
(tense music continues)
I'm gonna be very gentle about this.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Got it, got it, got it, got it, got it, got it.
Okay, let me just set it down gently here for a second,
and see if I can get it to stay in position
on the end of the stick.
Look at that.
(tense music continues)
Wow.
Okay, I'm actually bring this back just a touch.
I don't wanna put any pressure on that spot
where it's actually got something in its belly.
Wow, look at the triangular shape of the head,
it looks almost like the tip of a spear.
Now, the twig snake specifically is extremely venomous.
It is a rear-fanged snake.
And the dangerous aspect of this venom
it is highly hemotoxic and there is no anti-venom.
If you're bitten by this snake,
it is a very slow, very internally bloody death.
You basically hemorrhage on the inside
and blood will eventually start leaking
out of your different orifices,
which is kind of a horror situation.
But they're rather chill snakes.
As you can see, it's just completely calm at the moment.
Now this is a diurnal species.
So normally hunting during the day,
it'd be pretty easy for them to target chameleons,
especially early in the morning or later in the evening.
A crepuscular creature
that's definitely hunting in those cooler temperatures.
So slender, so unassuming looking,
yet so incredibly toxic.
Well, when we're looking for chameleons,
spotting one of their top predators
is definitely a cool thing to add to this episode.
Alright, we're just gonna gently place this snake
back up in the tree so it can continue digesting its meal
and having a good night's sleep.
Hopefully, you didn't eat all the chameleons.
(rhythmic music)
Look at these guys right in here.
Probably from a different clutch
'cause you can see how much bigger they are.
Ooh, this is inviting.
Check this out.
A small portal.
These are actually cut in the roadways for water drainage
and it really opens up back here.
Oh yeah, look at this.
(rhythmic music continues)
Oh, right there!
Yes, big chameleon!
Okay, I'm gonna move in
and try to get that piece of the vine down
so we can take a closer look.
You guys good?
We're gonna hang out for just a second, if that's cool?
Okay, so I got this piece of vine.
I'm gonna go for it.
It's fine.
(rhythmic music continues)
That's exactly where we want you to go.
Alright, sometimes it just takes a little bit of coaxing.
Okay, we are in business.
That is the flap-necked chameleon.
It appears to be a female, and the way I can tell that
is that the males have a big bulge
at the back near their vent,
and that's how you know that it's male chameleon parts.
There are four specific things
I would love to look at with this lizard,
tail, feet, eyes, and that tongue.
You can see the prehensile nature of this tail.
Wrapped around the edge of this vine,
it works perfectly to help keep the animal balanced
up in the treetops.
And they can completely hang on with that tail
if they need to stretch out
when they're going after a prey item.
Now, as you move up the tail and you look at the feet,
look at how they are grappled onto that vine.
They are called zygodactylous.
That's the name for these feet,
which basically means two toes in the front,
two toes in the back.
They look just like little oven mitts.
And if you look real closely,
you can see that they have very, very sharp claws.
And chameleons are capable of using their feet
and their tail to help them move pretty much effortlessly
through the treetops.
As we all know, this is an arboreal species,
and when it comes to camouflage
you really can't top that green coloration.
Now, if a chameleon is stretched out on a branch like this,
it's gonna completely look like leaf.
That not only helps keep it hidden from predators
but it keeps it camouflaged
as it's slowly slinking up on a potential prey item.
When it comes to seeing its prey,
the coolest thing about a chameleon's eyes
are their ability to move 180 degrees in either direction,
which essentially gives this reptile the ability
to see 360 degrees within its environment.
And what they will do is use one eye, monocular vision,
to hone in on a potential prey item.
Then, they will refocus the other eye,
giving them laser type focus
so that they can hone in and use that ballistic tongue
to catch their prey.
That tongue is one of the most unique aspects
of this reptile, and they have specialized muscles
that will allow their tongue to shoot out of their mouth.
That tongue can be two times the length of the body.
The saliva that's on that tongue
basically engulfs the prey item,
and then sucks it back into its mouth
where it has some pretty sharp teeth
and some rather powerful jaws considering its size.
(uplifting music)
Contrary to popular belief,
chameleons cannot just shift to any color.
You place this chameleon on my purple shirt,
it's not gonna turn purple.
Their color changes based on mood and environment.
When it comes to being camouflaged,
obviously different shades of green and brown
work perfectly.
And when it comes to stress,
a darker coloration will tell you
that this lizard is feeling uncomfortable.
That's why we are keeping it on the edge of this branch
as compared to handling it.
They're a very fragile species,
you don't wanna bruise the body.
And the more calm we can keep the lizard,
the better it's ultimately going to be.
(uplifting music continues)
Well, this was pretty cool.
It seemed like we came across a gazillion baby chameleons,
but nothing was better than coming across a female
that most likely laid a very successful clutch
this season here in South Africa.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild.
We'll see on the next adventure.
Alright, you ready to get back up into your tree
for a full night's sleep?
(crickets chirping together)
Hey, Coyote Pack,
if you're a fan of my amazing animal encounters,
then head over to shopbravewilderness.com
for our first ever board game,
"Coyote Peterson's Wild Adventure."
Not only is this game fun for all ages,
but you can also learn some awesome animal facts
while strategizing your next victory.
(playful music)
(dramatic sound)
(birds chirping together)