A snake wrangler has described an encounter he’ll “never forget” after he was called to a job in California, expecting the usual serpentine suspects, only to meet a scaly creature of a different kind.
Bruce Ireland took to YouTube with a tale described as “crazy and amazing”, featuring an eye-catching lizard causing quite the stir “crawling around the neighbourhood”. He shared with his audience: “Usually I get snake calls, but today this gentleman found this dude.”
To his surprise, Bruce pulled a chameleon from a container, as the docile reptile seemed keen to befriend him, comfortably settling on his shoulder before migrating to his baseball cap. Overwhelmed with excitement, he exclaimed: “Oh my god you have got to be kidding me.”
He then marvelled as ‘Max’ – the chameleon’s new name given – flaunted a vibrant turquoise shift from its natural green hues. “What a trip!” Bruce raved. “You are the coolest dude ever. My kids are going to flip – this is just a bizarre creature. I think they are from Madagascar. He looks so healthy, I think what I will try to do is put ads up first (appealing for Max’s owner to come forward) as this must be somebody’s pet.”
Bruce’s 699,000 YouTube followers were equally enthralled, with thousands reacting to the mesmerising lizard. An inspired comment from one viewer helped pinpoint the animal even more specifically: “Beautiful Madagascar blue bar panther chameleon! He’s stunning, not even fully grown! The fact that he didn’t puff up or hiss when you put your hand in says he’s a pet.”
A second person concurred, commenting: “The fact that he’s so friendly and immediately started scrambling to get to you shows that he’s been domesticated and wont survive in the wild. Thank you for rescuing him!”
Another was clearly taken with the owner’s expertise, saying: “Chameleon’s are so hard to raise! You can tell, not only does his owners clearly know what they’re doing with chameleon’s, but he’s absolutely loved! He’s been handled a lot. What magnificent colours!”
Meanwhile, a fourth remarked on the chameleon’s comfort with humans too: “It seems like that little guy instantly was familiar as what a human is. Completely relaxed and comfortable crawling around. Idk if he had a previous owner, but take care of the little guy. Such a amazing colour and pattern.”
According to Chameloeon Academy, panther chameleons inhabit the coastal regions of Madagascar from around the central Eastern coast all the way around the Northern tip and down almost to the central Western coast.
Their website explains: “They also inhabit the various islands along the coast. And if you have heard of the locales Nosy Be, Nosy Faly, or Nosy anything, those come from islands. Nosy is the Malagasy word for island. Each of these locales has a certain color palette different from the others. So one locale will have a red base while another might have a blue base. But the red based panther will never turn blue. So there are limitations here.
“The changes across the range are seen in the males. The females are a beautiful pink, salmon, brown or gray, but the females of all the locales show the same color variations so there is no way to tell the locale of the females just by looking at her.”
