Reptilia · Squamata
Chamaeleo chamaeleonLinnaeus, 1758
Common Chameleon
Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist
A tree-dwelling, day-active, omnivorous chameleon from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 170 mm snout to vent.
Also called European chameleon, Mediterranean Chameleon.
Reptilia › Squamata › Chamaeleonidae › Chamaeleo
- Grows to
- 170mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 6years
Longer than 90% 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
47 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
- 6years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 31.6°C
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 28.5°C83 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 24.2–32.8°C76–91 °F
Carey and Judge 2000, De Magalhaes & Costa 2009, Bogin and Werner 1995, Amitai and Bouskila 2001 (3), Slavens and Slavens 1999, Hughes 1988: 3 years 7 months in Jerusalem, Necas 1999: 6 but maybe even longer, LeBerre 2009: 5 years, 2-4 (Yildirim et al. 2022)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 170mm6.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 110.1mm4.25 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 114.3mm4.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 27.2mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 27.2mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 89.1g3.1 oz
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 36.49g1.3 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 41.31g1.5 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.65g0.02 oz
max 170 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Diet
- Omnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Forest, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 6–12months
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2600m
- Range size
- 1,963,659km²
- Density
- 0.83–100per hectare
Omnivorous, arthropods, fruits and lizards (e.g., Corti and Cascio 2002, occasionally chicks, Dimaki et al. 2001, Measey et al. 2014 p108, Schleich 1987), invertebrates and fruit (Keren-Rotem et al. 2006), invertebrates (Spawls et al. 2023)
(e.g., pers. obs., Spawls et al. 2023)/ mixed (Ibrahim 2013)
e.g., Werner 2016 and pers. obs., del Marmol et al. 2019, Spawls et al. 2023
(e.g., pers obs., del Marmol et al. 2019), partially arboreal (Spawls et al. 2023)
max 1750 (Werner 2016), 0-2000 (Speybroeck et al. 2016), 800-2600 (Kwet 2015), minus 400 to 1400 (Disi and Amr 1998), 0-1850 (del Marmol et al. 2019), 0-1700 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 23.65eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3–50eggs
- Mean clutch
- 17.3–30eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 1per year
- Clutches a year
- 1per year
- First breeds at
- 7–24months
up to 40 (Bar and Haimovitch 2012), 9-28, mean 17.3 (Ibrahim 2013), LeBerre et al. 2000: 15-50; LeBerre 2009: 15-40, mean 20.4 (Werner 1995), 12-66 (Werner 2016), 20-40 (Kwet 2015), 16-18 (TAU experimental zoo data), 4-40 (Cumhuriyet et al. 2018, Diaz-Paniagua et al. 2002, Spawls et al. 2023), 14-47 (Keren-Rotem et al. 2006, Keren-Rotem et al. 2016), 5-46 (del Marmol et al. 2019)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Acrodontia
- Subspecies
- Chamaeleo chamaeleon chamaeleon (LINNAEUS 1758) Chamaeleo chamaeleon musae STEINDACHNER 1901 Chamaeleo chamaeleon orientalis PARKER 1938 Chamaeleo chamaeleon recticrista BOETTGER 1880
- Described by
- Linnaeus
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1758
- Type locality
- Africa, Asia
Keeping one
2 ft 3 in × 16.5 in × 2 ft 3 in(68 × 43 × 68 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 6.75 in (170 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 89 °F (31.6 °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.
11kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 89 g, the heaviest recorded for Common 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
1 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 0 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.
- Skin colourpeer reviewed
- Genetic and behavioural factors affecting interpopulation colour pattern variation in two congeneric chameleon species. — R Soc Open Sci 2024
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
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
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 chamaeleon. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/chamaeleo-chamaeleon
@misc{chamaeleo_chamaeleon_2026,
title = {Chamaeleo chamaeleon},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/chamaeleo-chamaeleon}
}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.
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.