Template:POTD/2020-02-10

Picture of the day

Calumma brevicorne, the short-horned chameleon, has a compressed body, spindly legs, grasping feet and a powerful prehensile tail that allows it to negotiate the branches and twigs of its arboreal habitat. Its most distinctive features are its large, ear-like flaps, and the short bony appendage that projects from the snout of the male. Chameleons are primarily insectivores and feed by ballistically projecting their long tongues from their mouths to capture prey located some distance away.

This picture shows a C. brevicorne female, photographed at night near Analamazaotra Special Reserve, part of Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in Madagascar, the island to which the species is endemic. In these forests, the population density of short-horned chameleons is approximately 2.4 per hectare (1.0 per acre).Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp