Why?

[balmybaldwin]

So we know that the myth that Chameleons change colour to blend in to their surroundings is a bit off....

However, I can't understand why my Panther turns White at night... making him stand out a mile... normally it takes me afew minutes in the day to spot him in his viv (he's still small), but at night it's like he's trying to standout... surely this makes them vulnerable to predators in the wild?

DO other species do this too?

 

[balmybaldwin]

anyone?.....

 

[Hoj]

no clue alot of what they do, panthers especially, seems to not be very good camafouge, my guy goes white when he sleeps too.

 

[Picasso123]

Mine is pink, it's mostly because they're relaxed and there isn't much light on in the jungles of Madagascar at night.

 

[Monzon]

O.k. This is a non-scientific guess. A hypothesis if you will.... I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about this kind of stuff and love discussing it.
In nature, predators have prey images and prey silhouettes as part of their instinctual knowledge. Many animals, both hunted and hunter have what is called counter-shading which seems to break-up or disguise their silhouette. Some nights are very dark, but most nights have substantial incidental sky light from the moon, stars, and upper atmosphere. A dark shape would have a more clearly defined silhouette at night than a light color. The light color would offer far less contrast with the incidental light of the night sky - facultative invisibility.....anyone else?

 

[KTown333]

Maybe their predators dont have eyes like us. We cant assume that our eyes are the same as other animals.

 

[Monzon]

I'm not assuming nocturnal predators have "the same eyes as ours."

I am assuming that they have superior night vision, hence the need for counter shading to avoid detection.

 

[Stanly]

(2nd hand info) some one posted that most nocturnal predators don't see colors like we do, also chameleons coloring (beyond their base color) is a active process which uses energy. So since being lighter doesn't really disadvantage them there's no reason to waste the energy