Veiled Chameleons Body Parts

Video Transcript

"NICOLE BRAGG: On behalf of Expert Village, I'm Nicole and I'm here to tell you about Veiled Chameleons. Now, chameleons are generally a flat--they generally have a pretty flat body, usually made to look sort of like a leaf or a branch. Now they--their bodies are--they're very, very unique animals. Their toes are bound together, three on one side, two on the other and they just kind of grasp the branches, it's made to allow them to have some sort of opposable thumb almost to be able to grab the branches 'cause this is where they spend almost all of their time. Now, they also have--their eyes are very unique to chameleons because they rotate in all directions, they can look in any direction they want to two different images at a time. Their brains are made to process two different images, so they--it's part of their defense mechanism. In nature, they're pretty exposed animals. They live where they have a lot of dangers and where they're exposed almost all of the time. So, these--being able to process two different images at once is something that allows them to be aware of their surroundings at all times. Now, their tail is very unique because they use this as part of their climbing. Their balance is completely dependent on their tail. If they do not have their tail to hang on to or to balance them before they begin to move to a new area, then, they can often fall. This is something that proves very useful when trying to collect their insects. When they go after an insect they will often just--even sometimes hang by only their tail to reach an insect that they want to eat."