Don’t we all like to dress up nicely most of the time?
You may have noticed that in nature also, animals love to dress up. Maybe not with cloths but using their natural body colour.
Indian Chameleon is one such reptile. But they make it more fun by having not one dress but many with different colours and patterns.
The colours depend on its mood like happy, tired or the weather like hot or cold!
Now isn’t that amazing?
The Indian Chameleon is usually found in green colour with brown bands. However, it becomes blacker when it gets cold and greener when it is hot.
Why?
Because black absorbs heat which it needs when it is cold and brighter colours reflect light to keep it cooler when the weather is hot. So it is just being smart!
The Chameleon also changes colour according to its moods such as angry, tired, etc.
When the male Chameleon is courting, which means it wants to attract the female chameleon, it sports flashy colours.
That is one cool lizard, don’t you think.
Additional Information:
The Indian Chameleon is a slow moving arboreal (living in trees) lizard. It is found in India and Sri-Lanka.
The hindi name for it is Girgit. It is called the same in other native languages like Kannada also.
Activity:
An interesting activity you can do, is to observe if you or someone in your family also dresses according to moods. What dress is worn when angry? when happy? Do you notice a pattern?
References:
http://www.whereincity.com/india-kids/animals/chameleon.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamaeleo_zeylanicus
http://kalyan-city.blogspot.com/2010/03/indian-chameleon-chamaeleo-zeylanicus.html
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0210/articles/mainarticle.html (explains how they change colours)
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