(Alive) Reptile

I often see chameleons in trees but the other day I was excited to see one crossing the footpath in front of my house. I never realized exactly how cool chameleons are until I sat down and watched this guy for like 45 minutes.

First, their eyes. They have separately mobile stereoscopic eyes, which means both eyes can move independently of one another. The chameleon would often keep one eye on me and one eye on where he was walking, which for some reason, I found hilarious. It also kind of blows my mind trying to imagine how they internalize this in their brain. In the end I settled on the idea that they must have some type of split screen mechanism like those fancy TVs (this is not scientifically proven).

The species here also has a prehensile tail, which means it's like a spider monkey and can use it's tail to grip and hang from branches. Unfortunately I didn't get to see this in action but I did get to see it walking with its interesting gait and unique "hand". Although they have five "fingers" they really appear to be only two, looking something like a crab's pinchers.

Of course, the highlight was watching the chameleon eat flies and other insects. I never tired of watching it's lightening fast tongue dart out and catch unsuspecting victims. In fact, it made me a bit nervous taking pictures of the chameleon because I feared it might get nervous and use it's tongue to dart out one of my eyes. Later research confirmed that this has never been reported so next time I'll have more pictures!