Panther Chameleon (Furcifer pardalis): Colors, Size and Facts

What does a panther chameleon look like?

The panther chameleon has the typical chameleon body: flattened from side to side, with a curled, grasping tail and large eyes set in cone-shaped turrets. A low crest runs along the back, and a pale stripe often runs along each side of the body. The head has a modest ridge, or casque, but no horns.

Its feet are built for gripping thin branches. On each foot the five toes are fused into two bundles, one of two toes and one of three, which close on a twig like a pair of tongs. Each toe ends in a sharp claw for grip on bark. The tail wraps around branches and acts as a fifth limb.

The two sexes look very different. Adult males are larger and heavier, have a swollen tail base and show the bright colors the species is famous for. Females are smaller and much plainer, usually tan, brown, green or pinkish. The scientific name reflects the species’ looks and grip: Furcifer means “fork-bearer” in Latin, a reference to the split feet, and pardalis comes from the Latin for leopard or panther.

Locality color forms of male panther chameleons

Few reptiles vary as much in color as the panther chameleon. Breeders and scientists name the color forms, or locales, after the towns and islands where they live, because males from one area tend to look alike while males from another area look quite different:

• Nosy Be, Ambanja and Ankify (northwest): mostly blue, turquoise and blue-green males, sometimes called “blue panthers.”
• Ambilobe and Antsiranana (far north): males are often red, orange or green.
• Sambava (northeast): orange, red or green males.
• Maroantsetra and Tamatave (east): mainly red males.
• Parts of the northwest coast: pinkish males with a pale side stripe, nicknamed “pink panthers.”

There is plenty of variation within each region, too. Genetic studies suggest that the panther chameleon may actually be a complex of several closely related species, and some of the lineages match the main color forms. For now it is still treated as a single, very variable species.

Gravid females (those carrying eggs) also show locale-specific colors. They turn dark brown or black with orange stripes or bars, and the exact pattern differs between regions.

How do panther chameleons change color?

Like other chameleons, the panther chameleon changes color by tuning the structure of its skin, not just by moving pigment. A 2015 study of panther chameleons at the University of Geneva found that a layer of cells called iridophores contains tiny guanine crystals arranged in a regular lattice. When the lattice is tight, it reflects blue light, which mixes with yellow pigment above it to look green. When an excited male spreads the crystals apart, the skin shifts toward yellow, orange or red within minutes.

The changes are mostly about communication and temperature, not about matching the background. Our article on why chameleons change color explains the skin layers and the signals in detail.

How big do panther chameleons get?

The panther chameleon is one of the larger chameleons. The biggest males reach about 40–50 cm (16–20 in) including the tail, though many adults are smaller. Females are much smaller and lighter.

A field study on the island of Nosy Be measured 185 wild animals:

The ranges include young animals. Hatchlings weigh only about 0.25–0.75 g (0.01–0.03 oz) and grow quickly, reaching adult size within their first year.

Habitat and range

Panther chameleons are native to Madagascar, where they live mainly in the lowlands of the north and east. They are common along the east coast from around Tamatave (Toamasina) north to Sambava, across the far north near Antsiranana, and in the northwest around Ambanja and Ambilobe. They also live on nearby islands such as Nosy Be, Nosy Faly, Nosy Mitsio and Nosy Mangabe.

The habitat varies from humid rainforest regions in the east to drier, broken forest and savanna in the northwest. Unlike many Malagasy chameleons, panther chameleons are not deep-forest animals. They prefer sunny, open places with bushes and small trees: forest edges, strips of trees along rivers and roads, scrub, plantations and village gardens.

They do surprisingly well in landscapes changed by people. On Nosy Be, researchers counted about 42 adults per hectare (about 17 per acre) in the belts of vegetation along roads, compared with about 17 per hectare in farmland away from roads.

Panther chameleons have been introduced to Réunion, where they are well established, and have also been reported from Mauritius and Florida, where pet-trade animals were released or escaped.

Diet: tongue and eyes

Panther chameleons are insectivores. They eat insects and other small invertebrates, and only very rarely plant material. They hunt by sitting still on a perch and waiting for prey to come within range.

Their eyes do the searching. Each eye sits in a cone of fused eyelids with only a small opening for the pupil, and each can swivel on its own, so a chameleon can look forward with one eye and backward with the other and scan almost all the way around its body. When it spots prey, it turns its head and focuses both eyes on the target to judge the distance. Read more in how chameleon eyes work.

The kill is made with the tongue. A panther chameleon’s tongue can be longer than its body, and chameleon tongues in general shoot out with an acceleration of more than 40 g, reaching prey in a fraction of a second. A sticky, cup-shaped tip grabs the insect, the tongue is pulled back, and the strong jaws crush the prey. Our guide to how fast a chameleon’s tongue is covers the mechanics.

Sunlight matters too. Panther chameleons make vitamin D in their skin when exposed to ultraviolet light, and studies of captive females found that they adjust how much they bask in UV according to their vitamin D needs.

Behavior: displays between rival males

Panther chameleons are solitary and territorial. Adults usually live alone in a tree or bush, and males have larger home ranges than females.

When two males meet, a contest begins. Each male turns his brightest colors, flattens his body sideways and inflates it to look as large as possible, and may gape and rock back and forth. Most contests end at this stage: the loser backs down, retreats and turns dark and drab, which signals defeat. If neither male gives way, they may fight with bites, and serious injuries are possible.

Like all reptiles, panther chameleons depend on outside heat. They bask in the sun to warm up, but they tolerate a wide range of daytime body temperatures, about 24–36 °C (75–97 °F), before they need to seek sun or shade.

Reproduction and life cycle

In most areas, breeding takes place between about January and May. A male courts a female with bright colors and jerky head bobbing. If she is receptive, she lets him mount her; if not, she gapes, hisses, rocks and may bite.

After mating, the female soon turns her dark, non-receptive colors. About three to six weeks later she climbs down, digs a burrow in the soil with her front feet and lays a clutch of about 10–46 eggs, depending on her size and condition. She then fills in the hole, treads the soil down and may drag leaves over the site. That is the end of her care: there is no parental care after laying. A female can lay several clutches in a season.

The eggs develop slowly, usually hatching after about 6–12 months. The hatchlings are fully independent and can reach sexual maturity at only about 6–7 months old.

How long do panther chameleons live?

Panther chameleons have one of the fastest life histories of any lizard. A study on Nosy Be that counted growth rings in the leg bones found that most wild adults were less than one year old, and the oldest animal examined, a large male, was about two years old. Females in particular rarely seem to survive long after their first breeding season.

In captivity they live longer: males often reach about 5–7 years, while females usually live about 2–3 years, because producing many large clutches of eggs takes a heavy toll. Our article on how long chameleons live compares lifespans across species.

Predators, threats and conservation status

Birds and snakes are the main predators of adult chameleons in general, while ants and other invertebrates take many eggs and hatchlings. A chameleon’s first defense is to stay still and look like part of the foliage. If discovered, it flattens and inflates its body, gapes and hisses, and bites if grabbed.

The IUCN Red List classes the panther chameleon as Least Concern (assessed in 2011). It is widespread, common and thrives in disturbed habitats, including roadsides and plantations. Its main pressures are clearing of vegetation and collection for the international pet trade.

The panther chameleon has long been the most sought-after chameleon in the reptile trade because of its colors, its large size and how readily it breeds. International trade is controlled under CITES Appendix II. Madagascar banned the export of most of its chameleons in 1994 but kept a quota for a few common species, including this one. Exports per species once reached about 15,000 animals a year, and after 1998 legal exports were cut to about 2,000 a year.

Researchers on Nosy Be, the source of many “blue panthers,” concluded that this level of collecting had little effect on the wild population, which numbers in the hundreds of thousands there, because the species grows fast and lays many eggs. They recommended protecting the strips of vegetation along roads and rivers where most of the chameleons live. Captive breeding outside Madagascar now supplies much of the trade.

Panther chameleons and people

Because they live along roads, in villages and in plantations, panther chameleons are among the chameleons that visitors to northern Madagascar are most likely to see.

Around the world, the panther chameleon is a favorite subject of research on color change, vision and the ballistic tongue. It also features in our list of animals of Madagascar, alongside lemurs and the fossa.