chameleons have a lot of crazy things
going on and are pretty unique in the
lizard world they have these
independently rotating googly eyes this
prehensile tail which is basically a
monkey tail they can use like a fit
limbs spring-loaded tongs that shoot out
to catch their food and of course
everyone’s heard that chameleons can
change colors to match their background
although that’s not actually true
this shift colors based on their mood or
temperature and some of the biggest
color shows are between fighting males
but because of all this chameleons have
become popular pets in the US and like
so many other exotic pets they’ve
somehow ended up in the wilds of Florida
the state that is now home to more
non-native reptiles than anywhere else
in the world but what’s curious about
chameleons is in contrast to more
infamous outsiders like the Burmese
python or the Argentine tegu they don’t
actually spread far on their own they’re
slow-moving lizards that tend to stick
to a small range so how is it that
they’ve been making their way through
South Florida for years and no one is
really talking about it for a long time
you could pretty much only buy imported
chameleons and they were kind of pricey
the importers were getting shipments
from across the world hundreds of
thousands over time mostly from Yemen
and Madagascar and some people figured
they could make their living buying and
selling reptiles anywhere you see pretty
green trees on the entire disc entire
house here was 100% decaying shelters
for lizards and snakes and aardvarks
like dr. Dolittle on acid kind of thing
it was crazy
this is Brandon his family owns a
popular fruit stand in South Florida and
on one of their orchards is a home that
was once rented out to a reptile dealer
and almost you can see the ones they
were in the cages but then you can see
the trees next to it that’s the same
lizards they ended up evicting the
reptile guy and Brandon’s brother moved
into the house but word had gotten out
that you could find escaped
chameleons on their orchard my brother
was up one morning he was taking a
shower and he caught a light out of his
window where it shouldn’t have been a
life so he just panicked grabs his
pistol and he runs out door
jaybird pistol firing in the air and
trying to kill or not there was
definitely people in the back edge which
works great for the chameleons okay who
would risk getting shot at in the middle
of the night for a chameleon these are
members of a Herpetological Society big
time in phibian and reptile fans they’re
known as herpers for short in our free
time we don’t go out drinking we could
go out herping chameleon spots and that
the best way to find them was to go out
at night and shine flashlights into the
bushes
a sleeping chameleon will turn a
slightly different colored green and the
leaves around it and while it is
definitely illegal to release any exotic
species in Florida there’s nothing
that’s really keeping people from
catching and keeping chameleons that are
already loose if you really want to find
a lot of chameleons in a lot of
different spots you have to do a lot of
sleuthing there’s a whole world of
secretive online forums and herpers who
refuse to share their chameleons
locations
I had big notebook of clues that I’ve
been given and I actually found a
chameleon spot because someone mentioned
they had thrown an avocado at the
chameleon and that was the last piece of
the puzzle and I found the spot a couple
weeks after that there in all of these
secret spots that are not just next to
breeders they’re on public property
sometimes right next to the side of the
road miles away from it
[Music]
but people have actually started taking
chameleons and letting them go into
patch of woods behind their house or
something to that effect
they will breed in time you can go back
to collect from their babies getting
free food free water free care and make
money off of those this has become known
as chameleon ranch when I got started it
was an easy way to make extra cash but
now they’re holies enthusiasts who are
also spreading chameleons just for the
adventure of returning to find them both
groups are moving civilians to new spots
if a secret location gets found out
others go and collect every chameleon
they can find and now this has been
going on for a long enough that you
wonder what it might take to stop the
spread and if it’s even possible at this
point there are 180 species of reptile
amphibian introduced to the state of
Florida
63 of those had become established we
would love to tackle every invasive
species problem that comes up but we
don’t even have the resources to tackle
the high priority ones correctly you
know chameleons are pretty low on the
totem pole not enough studies exist to
know if chameleons are truly invasive
and so they remain somewhat unchecked in
the shadow of more damaging reptiles and
as wild and captive bred Florida
chameleons were added to the market with
a reputation for being harder the
shipments from lizards caught and sold
in their home countries actually dropped
so for better or worse between all the
guns shadows and secrets it seems like
these chameleons are here to stay
[Music]
you
going on and are pretty unique in the
lizard world they have these
independently rotating googly eyes this
prehensile tail which is basically a
monkey tail they can use like a fit
limbs spring-loaded tongs that shoot out
to catch their food and of course
everyone’s heard that chameleons can
change colors to match their background
although that’s not actually true
this shift colors based on their mood or
temperature and some of the biggest
color shows are between fighting males
but because of all this chameleons have
become popular pets in the US and like
so many other exotic pets they’ve
somehow ended up in the wilds of Florida
the state that is now home to more
non-native reptiles than anywhere else
in the world but what’s curious about
chameleons is in contrast to more
infamous outsiders like the Burmese
python or the Argentine tegu they don’t
actually spread far on their own they’re
slow-moving lizards that tend to stick
to a small range so how is it that
they’ve been making their way through
South Florida for years and no one is
really talking about it for a long time
you could pretty much only buy imported
chameleons and they were kind of pricey
the importers were getting shipments
from across the world hundreds of
thousands over time mostly from Yemen
and Madagascar and some people figured
they could make their living buying and
selling reptiles anywhere you see pretty
green trees on the entire disc entire
house here was 100% decaying shelters
for lizards and snakes and aardvarks
like dr. Dolittle on acid kind of thing
it was crazy
this is Brandon his family owns a
popular fruit stand in South Florida and
on one of their orchards is a home that
was once rented out to a reptile dealer
and almost you can see the ones they
were in the cages but then you can see
the trees next to it that’s the same
lizards they ended up evicting the
reptile guy and Brandon’s brother moved
into the house but word had gotten out
that you could find escaped
chameleons on their orchard my brother
was up one morning he was taking a
shower and he caught a light out of his
window where it shouldn’t have been a
life so he just panicked grabs his
pistol and he runs out door
jaybird pistol firing in the air and
trying to kill or not there was
definitely people in the back edge which
works great for the chameleons okay who
would risk getting shot at in the middle
of the night for a chameleon these are
members of a Herpetological Society big
time in phibian and reptile fans they’re
known as herpers for short in our free
time we don’t go out drinking we could
go out herping chameleon spots and that
the best way to find them was to go out
at night and shine flashlights into the
bushes
a sleeping chameleon will turn a
slightly different colored green and the
leaves around it and while it is
definitely illegal to release any exotic
species in Florida there’s nothing
that’s really keeping people from
catching and keeping chameleons that are
already loose if you really want to find
a lot of chameleons in a lot of
different spots you have to do a lot of
sleuthing there’s a whole world of
secretive online forums and herpers who
refuse to share their chameleons
locations
I had big notebook of clues that I’ve
been given and I actually found a
chameleon spot because someone mentioned
they had thrown an avocado at the
chameleon and that was the last piece of
the puzzle and I found the spot a couple
weeks after that there in all of these
secret spots that are not just next to
breeders they’re on public property
sometimes right next to the side of the
road miles away from it
[Music]
but people have actually started taking
chameleons and letting them go into
patch of woods behind their house or
something to that effect
they will breed in time you can go back
to collect from their babies getting
free food free water free care and make
money off of those this has become known
as chameleon ranch when I got started it
was an easy way to make extra cash but
now they’re holies enthusiasts who are
also spreading chameleons just for the
adventure of returning to find them both
groups are moving civilians to new spots
if a secret location gets found out
others go and collect every chameleon
they can find and now this has been
going on for a long enough that you
wonder what it might take to stop the
spread and if it’s even possible at this
point there are 180 species of reptile
amphibian introduced to the state of
Florida
63 of those had become established we
would love to tackle every invasive
species problem that comes up but we
don’t even have the resources to tackle
the high priority ones correctly you
know chameleons are pretty low on the
totem pole not enough studies exist to
know if chameleons are truly invasive
and so they remain somewhat unchecked in
the shadow of more damaging reptiles and
as wild and captive bred Florida
chameleons were added to the market with
a reputation for being harder the
shipments from lizards caught and sold
in their home countries actually dropped
so for better or worse between all the
guns shadows and secrets it seems like
these chameleons are here to stay
[Music]
you
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