All Angles Creatures
Squamata · ChamaeleonidaeEntry 10,659 of 21,572

Reptilia · Squamata

Kinyongia asheorumNečas, Sindaco, Korený, Kopecná, Malonza, Modrý, 2009

Mount-Nyiro Bearded Chameleon

No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.

A tree-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating chameleon from the Afrotropic region, reaching 92 mm snout to vent.

ReptiliaSquamataChamaeleonidaeKinyongia

Grows to
92mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Arboreal
Body length across Chamaeleonidae

Longer than 63% of all chameleons anyone has measured.

63% of 227 species are smaller37% larger
18.2 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest300 mm

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

25 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
Near Threatened
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2013

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
92mm3.5 in

max 92 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Body mass · greatestcomputed
16.03g0.57 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

invertebrates (Rodda 2020)

Active
Diurnal

(Kenya Reptile Atlas (http://kenyareptileatlas.com/)

Where it lives
Arboreal

e.g., Kenya Reptile Atlas, Spawls et al. 2018

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Region
Afrotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
2000–2500m

2000-2450 (e.g., Kenya Reptile Atlas (http://kenyareptileatlas.com/), 2000-2500 (Spawls et al. 2018)

Range size
19.6km²

Breeding

Average clutch
10eggs

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Acrodontia
Subspecies
No
Described by
Nečas, Sindaco, Korený, Kopecná, Malonza, Modrý
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
2009
Type locality
Kenya

Keeping one

14.5 in × 9 in × 14.5 in(37 × 23 × 37 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 3.5 in (92 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Mount-Nyiro Bearded Chameleon. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

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.

2kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 16 g, the heaviest recorded for Mount-Nyiro Bearded 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.

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 female mean
  • 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 female · snout to vent
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • Reproduction
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Smallest clutch recorded
  • Largest clutch recorded
  • Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • Mean clutch · largest reported
  • Clutches in a year
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • 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
  • Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Population trend
  • 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). Kinyongia asheorum. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/kinyongia-asheorum

@misc{kinyongia_asheorum_2026,
  title  = {Kinyongia asheorum},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/kinyongia-asheorum}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.