Animals that can change color are observed more often than you might think across different species, habitats, and even body parts. While reindeer have eyes that change color in winter and fish can turn black with anger, documentary makers have witnessed the Labord’s chameleon (Furcifer labordi) putting on a spectacular display at the end of her life.
Using time-lapse photography for the new PBS series Big Little Journeys, the team recorded the last few colorful hours of the chameleon’s life in Kirindy Forest in western Madagascar. The researchers recorded her laying her eggs and covering them to protect them from the harsh weather extremes of a dry season in Madagascar. The females put all their energy into producing eggs that need to get through the long drought while underground. They die within just a few hours of having laid them, as they have few resources left.
The incredible colors within the skin of these Labord’s chameleons are controlled by the nervous system even as the animal dies. The topmost layer of the skin is transparent while the layers beneath contain cells known as chromatophores. Each chromatophore has a different kind of pigment, some are deeper down and contain melanin, while those on top might have yellow or red pigments within types of chromatophores called xanthophores or erythrophores. When the chameleon changes temperature or mood, the sacs containing the pigments are triggered by the nervous system, which produces a whole array of colors across a chameleon’s body.
On reviewing the footage, the documentary makers were amazed and moved by the colorful spectacle they had filmed – something that the scientists have never observed in the wild before. Producer Valeria Fabbri-Kennedy and Chris Raxworthy, a herpetologist at the American Museum of Natural History, told Live Science about the incredible experience of witnessing the chameleon’s final display.
Animals that can change color are observed more often than you might think across different species, habitats, and even body parts. While reindeer have eyes that change color in winter and fish can turn black with anger, documentary makers have witnessed the Labord’s chameleon (Furcifer labordi) putting on a spectacular display at the end of her life.
