Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I know this is totally irrelovent to the actual care of a chameleon, but I was just curious as to if they can swim? I mean, surly during the rainy season in madagscar some chameleons fall into water. Do you think they drown or stay afloat? We live on a lake, and when I was taking my chameleon out by the beach he strayed too close to the water..although I really wanted to see if he could swim I would NEVER do that though. Thanks in advance for the input,

Michele

Michele-

I don't see any features on chameleons that would be useful in the water. I would have to say no, they cant swim. Hope this helps!

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John W. Lucas
www.CHAMELEONPARADISE.com
www.CALIFORNIASILKWORMS.com

Chameleons Online E-Zine Author

They can swim, but poorly and for a short distance. They don't "paddle", but whip their bodies and tails back and forth to move in the water. They also inflate themselves which helps them float for a while. Its probably enough to get them out of a stream or small pond if they fall, but I'm sure they can't handle very much of it as they would get chilled, slow down, get disoriented, and drown.

yea...i saw an episode on the discovery channel about floods in africa...i didnt recognize the species but when they were showing footage of all sorts of animals being swept away by floods caused by end of dry season heavy rains,there were a couple chameleons swimming for their lives.they didnt seem like great swimmers but they were not drowning.like what was already said,they seemed to have been all puffed up with air and were kinda floating on top while thrashing around to move.its hard to imagine certain animals being able to swim when you see them on land and how slow moving they are,but i really cant think of an animal that cant swim...well at least for a short time.elephants are considered great swimmers,sloths,kangaroos,rinos...all swimmers..now that i think of it...i think humans are the only animals that need to learn how to swim.it seems to come naturally to most other animals.