Chameleons get brighter when they don't have to deal with predators

By Ellen Phiddian
Updated May 13 2022 - 9:29am, first published 8:00am
A male Jackson's chameleon from Kenya. This male is using its display colour, signalling its dominance to rival males or quality to a female. Picture: Martin J. Whiting.
A male Jackson's chameleon from Kenya. This male is using its display colour, signalling its dominance to rival males or quality to a female. Picture: Martin J. Whiting.

In 1972, a pet shop owner on the island of Oahu, in Hawaii, ordered a few dozen Jackson's chameleons from Kenya to sell. When the lizards arrived, rattled by their long journey, the shop owner left them in his backyard to recover - allowing them to escape, and thus inadvertently causing the colonisation of Oahu by invasive chameleons.