Fascinating brevicaudatus behavior

[Brad Ramsey]

I just removed the 11th baby in two weeks from my original Riepelleon brevicaudatus enclosure and got to witness the most interesting behavior.
This was just a few minutes ago, so all the animals in the enclosure were sleeping.
This baby is fiesty and as I was coaxing him onto my finger, he gaped and vibrated and actually made a little squeaky noise.
This sent all the adults in the enclosure into an instant state of defense/camouflage that was amazing.
In unison they all went flat and leaf shaped, sent their heads up into the air and started shaking like leaves blowing in the wind.
Never opening their eyes, they continued long enough for me to grab the camera.
The shots are bad, but you get the idea.
It was a display of communication within a colony of chameleons that I have never witnessed or heard of. The babies cry (vibration) sent out an instant warning to the rest of the village that the situation was not safe.

Everyone is fine now and calmed down. Baby 11 is in the nursery tank asleep ... I'm still a bit shaken.

-Brad

 

[darkfader]

that is pretty crazy

 

[Pure]

That is too freaking cool. Sounds like something you would expect to see in a higher mammal colony.

You need to keep a video camera handy and try to catch that on tape! Maybe try to provoke this kind of response with a rubber snake.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I should mention that I have fooled around in that tank at night many times and removed other babies after dark (who didn't vibrate or squeak) and none of the adults have ever cared about my presence.
It was definitely the alarm that this neonate sounded, that triggered this behavior.

-Brad

 

[lizardboy119796]

This is what makes me love chameleons, their colours, their certain personalities, and their behaviour, such an awesome experiance, to witness something like that.

 

[Jakedn]

This is truly amazing, I would love to see a video of this.

 

[sarah777]

Fascinating!!!

 

[AncientCritters]

Thats too crazy. You guys with the pygs sure are making me want to get some.

 

[dirrtybirdy]

thats awesome! I would love to see have seen that.

 

[kinyonga]

I'm surprised the squeaking one didn't play dead on you as well as squeaking at you.

 

[Vampire.queen]

Wow, that's really unbelievable!
Seems to me that you are pretty lucky with unusual chameleon behaviour in captivity. *envy*

 

[Rocky]

That's really amazing. The pics look good to me. You can definitely tell what they are doing.

 

[Loz]

Wow, that's really interesting - thanks for sharing.

 

[jannb]

These fascinating creatures never cease to amaze me. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[Chris Anderson]

Very interesting observation, Brad. A number of years ago, we suggested these calls would be used as a communication method through branches. In an article I wrote with Kenneth Barnett (http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=2), we talked about it:

The subfamily Chamaeleonidae consists of the genera Bradypodion, Calumma, Chamaeleo and Furcifer. These species are for the most part arboreal. This enables the vibrations to be transmitted through the branches of the tree where other chameleons can detect them. By doing so, communication is possible over what could be a considerable distance and the infrasound vibrations can be used for courtship, territorial claims and other purposes.

The subfamily Brookesiinae is made up of the genera Rhampholeon and Brookesia. The members of these genera are generally terrestrial species living close to the ground. While on the ground, transmission of these vibrations through the leaf litter and ground would not travel as far as in a tree because the vibrations will travel in all directions rather than along a particular path in the form of a branch. It therefore seems more probable that this would be used as a defense so that a predator would be startled and drop these little chameleons. We also believe that is it likely that these calls could be used as communication but it would have to be at a much closer range than the members of the subfamily Chamaeleonidae. It is not clear at this time if true chameleons can hear any airborne component of the vibratory sounds they produce.

At the time, I divided the function of the vibratory call between the subfamilies Chamaeleoninae (although I mis-wrote Chamaeleonidae in the article) and Brookesiinae but obviously Brookesiinae are not strictly terrestrial so it would make sense that there would be overlap between the suggestions I made.

Always nice to see an old theory proven out.

Chris

 

[dragongoddess]

Nice! I've felt my brevs rumble (vibrate) when I have to pick them up, but I've never seen the others react to it. Maybe it is just from the babies?

 

[ggazonas]

Thats pretty cool. The first pic does a god job of showing what your describing. Lucky you were quick enough to grab the camera. I probably would have just stared at them and it would have been to late to take a pic.

By the way how big is there viv and how many of these guys do you have?

 

[Jerm]

I knew that there was more to the buzzing than I thought. I have witnessed my brevs acting this way when I'm messing around in their tank but I thought that they were just trying to blend in because they saw me. I have had them lay on the ground completely flat, and curl in an s formation to look like a dead leaf also. It's funny when the babies buzz because you can barely feel it. I bet if they are all in the same shrub the vibrations go throughout the plant. Great observation!

 

[hallenhe]

Wow! My adult male vibrated once when I moved him to clean the vivarium, trade out some plants, etc., but that's all. Haven't had any vibrations or squeaks from the babies, but so far I've been able to move them together with whatever twig, plant, etc. they're clinging to.

 

[Jonas]

It sure is an interesting observation, but I would like to point out that it is just that: an observation.

To bring some science into the event, one cant really make any real conclusions from this one event, especially not as forward ones as

"It was a display of communication within a colony of chameleons that I have never witnessed or heard of. The babies cry (vibration) sent out an instant warning to the rest of the village that the situation was not safe."

I personally do not think it was the sound itself that alarmed the rest of the group, its just not something that I can see fit into their biology. IF there was such a behaviour, I would expect the call to be of low frequenzy as well.

I would think you could induce this behaviour again without the hatchling even being involved, simply by disturbing the group when it sleeps. The most probable factor and cause here is You. Ofcourse, I do not recomment such a test unless it was under controlled forms and for a real study.

Interesting though.

/ Jonas