Hollywood Chameleons: Difference between revisions

In [[Real Life]], Chameleons have only a limited colour changing ability which is primarily dictated by the lizard's mood. It is only rarely used for camoflage, despite the common perception, and even then only in some species. In reality, the colours they change into (shades of green, brown, and grey, with bolder psychedelic patterns usually reserved only for courtship/[[Game Face|frightening rivals and predators]]/etc.), just happen to be the same as their surroundings most of the time.

 

 

As a side note, the most well-known animal that actually does this is the octopus (along with cuttlefish), a trait rarely attributed to it in fiction. Meanwhile, the camouflage thing isn't the only behavior which has been falsely attributed to chameleons: in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it was popularly believed that these lizards lived by eating nothing except ''air''. The title character of Shakespeare's ''[[Hamlet]]'' references this, claiming to to the same thing himself (during his period of feigning madness).