Reptilia · Squamata
Chamaeleo calyptratusDuméril & Duméril, 1851
Veiled Chameleon
Photograph by Kupos, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
A tree-dwelling, day-active, omnivorous chameleon from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 248 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Chamaeleo calcarifer — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Chamaeleonidae › Chamaeleo
- Grows to
- 248mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 10years
Longer than 97% of all chameleons anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 18.2 to 300 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
40 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2012
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 10years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 32.9°C
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 32.9°C
LeBerre 2009: 5; When housed and fed properly, a male chameleon generally lives 7-10 yrs; breeding females, 4-6 years:(http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=17+1796&aid=2363); 5-8 (ADW, Wikipedia),
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 248mm9.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 180mm7 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 180mm7 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 25mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 25mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 255.9g9 oz
Bohme and Koppetsch 2021 (max 248 mm SVL)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Omnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Grassland, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 10–2850m
- Range size
- 96,512km²
Omnivorous: vertebrates, invertebrates and plants (Rogner 1997a - also LeBerre et al. 2000, Necas 1999, Tilbury 2010)
Banfi et al. 2023
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 35eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 11–95eggs
- Mean clutch
- 35eggs
- Clutches a year
- 2–3per year
- First breeds at
- 6months
35 (Van Wilgen and Richardson 2012), 30-95 (Zug 2013), 30-70 (LeBerre et al. 2000, LeBerre 2009)
(Van Wilgen and Richardson 2012), 30-95 (Zug 2013), 30-70 (LeBerre et al. 2000, LeBerre 2009)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Acrodontia
- Subspecies
- Chamaeleo calyptratus calyptratus DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1851 Chamaeleo calyptratus calcarifer PETERS 1871
- Described by
- Duméril & Duméril
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1851
- Type locality
- Region du Nil, Africa
Keeping one
3 ft 3 in × 2 ft × 3 ft 3 in(99 × 62 × 99 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Lives in vegetation, so height and climbing structure matter more than floor space.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 9.75 in (248 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 91 °F (32.9 °C).
Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
27kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 256 g, the heaviest recorded for Veiled Chameleon — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
Morphs
0 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 3 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.
What each pairing produces → · Two genes at once →
- Colour and displaybreeder consensus
How blue, green or yellow an animal shows. This is not a morph: a chameleon's colour shifts with temperature, light, mood and condition, and what remains between animals is individual quality worked on by selection.
- Piebaldbreeder consensus
Irregular unpigmented patches with clean edges, varying widely in extent between animals.
- Translucentbreeder consensus
Patches of skin lacking pigment, so the animal appears washed out or partly see-through, most visibly on the casque and limbs.
Worth knowing. Translucent animals are widely reported to be more sensitive to strong ultraviolet light than ordinary veiled chameleons, because the unpigmented skin has less protection. Keepers of these animals generally use lower UV output or greater distance.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Chamaeleonidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Chamaeleo calyptratus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/chamaeleo-calyptratus
@misc{chamaeleo_calyptratus_2026,
title = {Chamaeleo calyptratus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/chamaeleo-calyptratus}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.