- [Coyote] Right there, look at that, chameleon.
Once again, I'm going up into a tree after a lizard
and I gotta move quick.
Oh, so close!
(tribal music)
The vast wilderness of South Florida
and its warm humid temperatures are an ideal habitat
for a plethora of reptile species.
Native inhabitants such as the American alligator
are perfectly designed to survive
in the dark murky waters of the Everglades.
And while these apex predators belong here,
there are several reptilian invaders
that have shown up to the party uninvited.
From giant snakes like the Burmese python
to elusive egg-stealing lizards like the tegu,
these unwanted species are wreaking havoc
on the local ecosystem
by causing an unbalance in the food chain.
Both pythons and tegus have established
a breeding population in Florida
which means the odds of ever getting rid
of them are highly unlikely
and they aren't the only ones.
Tonight, we are exploring an agricultural area
in Homestead, Florida.
This lush fruit grove has a high concentration of insects.
And where you find bugs,
you will in turn, find hungry lizards.
All you need is to simply know where to look.
Certainly exciting to be exploring this orchard
but move with caution guys.
This place is filled with biological landmines.
Now I've got a couple tools with me tonight.
This is a bamboo pole, and at the top,
I've created a little squishy device
with a paper towel and some stretch tape.
This will help me tickle lizards out of the tree
and of course a flashlight so that we can spot them.
So if you guys are ready,
let's head off into the darkness and try to get some
of these lizards up-close for the cameras.
These trees are perfect for spotting lizards
that's for sure.
You have all this open understructure
and then the canopy above.
You can see that the leaves are much lighter in color
and lizards will actually kick out and be very bright.
If I was in iguana, this would be a great place to sleep.
Decent looking tree here.
(suspenseful music)
Hold right there, look at that.
- What do you got? - Chameleon!
Right there, going up that branch.
Look at that.
That's a veiled chameleon. - Oh I see it.
- Wow!
I'm gonna catch him.
You ready? - Yep.
- All right guys, once again,
I'm going up into a tree after a lizard
and I gotta move quick.
I'm going up a little bit higher.
- Careful. - Please support my weight.
Tree, please support my weight.
Mario, hand me that bamboo pole.
Let me see if I can get him to actually walk onto the pole.
All right I got myself locked in position
on this tree branch. - Just try to get light
on the lizard.
- [Coyote] Light the lizard.
You see him right there?
Come on buddy, grab onto this.
Wait for it.
All right I got him on a very isolated branch now.
Come on buddy, walk onto this branch.
There we go, there we go.
Look at this, he's going right where I need him to,
under that smaller branch.
Okay, go down, go down, go down.
Come here, oh. - You almost got him.
- [Coyote] Hold on, hold on.
Yes, yes, yes.
Do it, do it, do it, do it.
Come on.
Oh!
Oh, so close!
Hold on guys, I'm gonna get him.
Here, here, here.
Almost, almost.
I got him on my stick.
Got him, got him, got him, got him.
- Nice! - This is.
Hold on, wait, he's gripping onto this branch now.
Oh!
- Oh you lost him? - No, no, no.
It's okay, he's coming right toward me.
I'm gonna get him now.
You see him? - Yeah, I got him.
- Okay.
All right, let me see if I can coax him toward me
just a little bit more.
Light up the lizard.
Okay I'm gonna bring this branch down
and around toward me, I'm gonna grab the lizard.
Okay.
Broken branch, but we have ourselves a veiled chameleon.
Yes!
Wow, look at that!
Okay, actually Mario I'm gonna hand the lizard down to you.
There we go.
Yes!
Wow!
Okay,
man, we are in business.
Come on.
Yeah!
Wow, can you believe that?
Okay, let me take a look at you.
Okay, let's move ourselves back here out into the clearing.
This is the veiled chameleon.
Wow, ooh, it's trying to bite me.
Come on over here.
You know guys, one of these days,
I'm gonna actually catch a lizard
on the ground and not in a tree.
Look at this, whoa, whoa, buddy, no bites tonight.
Let me see if I could get him
off of the leaves and onto my hand.
What an incredible specimen.
There we go, up onto my hand.
That is the veiled chameleon
and a male, a good-looking one at that.
I can see, yes, your prehensile tail
is just grabbing onto that tree branch, there you go.
There it is.
Wow, its claws are sharp.
I see you, I see you.
Now there are a lot of these veiled chameleons
that are invasive here in South Florida
but I didn't expect to come across one tonight.
That's actually a lychee tree that I was climbing up into
and that foliage made a perfect place
for this lizard to be hiding.
Now you noticed the chameleon is a little darker
than we first spotted it.
And contrary to popular belief,
chameleons don't just change color based on the background,
they change color for a number of different reasons.
Sure they can use of camouflage
but oftentimes it has to do with temperature
or in this instance, a little bit of stress.
Now granted that I took it out of the tree,
we've got it in front of the cameras and lights,
it's getting a little bit darker in color
but either way, this is one handsome looking lizard.
I'll consider this a full-grown male.
This is big and males do grow bigger than the females
and one of the most distinctive traits
of the male is the casque on top of the head.
You see that, that dome-shaped looking helmet?
Scientists believe that they are used
to actually filter water down the chameleon's head
and in to its mouth and of course,
also as a breeding display to say to the females,
hey I've got a pretty cool-looking hairdo
you probably want to date me.
Another way to tell that it's a male
is actually on its back feet here.
Don't you try to bite me.
They have spurs on their rear feet
and that's used to grapple on
to the females during breeding.
And can you turn this way?
Let's see your feet, your feet are so cool.
Look at that, can you see him gripping onto my fingers?
They're like little scaly oven mitts.
- They have claws on them. - They do.
They have claws on the end
and they're very very grippy, very powerful.
Feels like this guy's got a power-lock
on my ring finger there, you see that?
Great point of purchase.
And these hands and the structure of these hands
allow them to hang out two tree branches
and they can actually stay in one spot
sway with the wind, stay completely camouflaged,
and be up in the canopy hunting.
And I'm looking right down the gauntlet here.
As we know chameleons have a long sticky tongue
and I'm definitely in the strike zone
if he decides that my nose is a potential prey item.
Good news for me is the chameleons do not eat human noses,
however they do eat quite a variety of insects
and this species also tends to feast on some plants
and they get a lot of their moisture
from the plants that they consume.
I'm gonna switch him over to this hand here.
Look at those eyes.
Now what's cool about the eye structure of the chameleon
is that each of these eyes are capable
of moving independently of one another.
They actually can move 180 degrees in each direction.
What they will do is spot an insect with a single eye,
slowly move their, head line up with two eyes,
and then, out comes that sticky tongue into the gauntlet
and then they have a meal.
And look at this chin, look at these spikes,
May I?
Thank you, sir.
Oh, that's cool.
- [Mario] Now, these appear aggressive, Coyote.
- Yeah.
Right?
- Will it bite you? - Yeah.
Well, if I put my finger in its mouth,
it's certainly gonna bite me
but they have an incredible row
of very sharp serrated teeth.
The last thing I wanna do is stick my finger in there.
Trust me, he'll let me know
that he is the dominant Godzilla in this area.
- [Mario] Now, Coyote, this chameleon is not really
supposed to be here, is it?
- No, this is an invasive species.
Actually these are from quite a ways away,
they're found in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Believe that, right?
So how did they end up here in South Florida?
The pet trade.
Oh, buddy, I know.
Trust me, I would like nothing more than
to place you back up in that lychee tree.
But you're an invader here in South Florida,
I just can't do it.
Don't worry guys.
This lizard is gonna be donated to an educational facility
where he's gonna become an ambassador
for his species to teach people
about the invaders here in South Florida.
But either way, it was still pretty epic managing to find
and catch one very handsome veiled chameleon.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
- [Mario] Hang on, hang on.
- What? - What about the tokay geckos?
- Oh, stay tuned guys.
There's definitely gonna be a part two to this episode.
(gentle music)
It didn't take us long.
In fact, it was less than 30 minutes
before we spotted one incredibly impressive invader.
Finding an enormous chameleon
was certainly an exciting start to the adventure
but I had an even more elusive target in mind
that would be far more difficult
to get in front of the cameras.
Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion,
as we press deeper into the darkness,
searching for the invasive tokay gecko.
And don't forget, subscribe, so you can join me and the crew
on this season of Breaking Trail.
Got him!
- You got it? - Yeah.
(wolf howling) (birds chirping)