Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
it could be a silly observation. When I was grabbing Sunshine yesterday eve to take her to the vet I could feel her vibrating a few times in the same way a cell phone on vibrate does, same intensity, same duration. I could feel it only when my hand was on her back.
I didn't know about this and I wonder if anybody had the same happening and how common it is. I do believe it is an "emergency" reaction since I was taking her off her branch.

Anybody?

Thanks, Kiara
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1.1 Skipper & Sunshine - Veiled Chameleons
1.1 Jimmy & Hydra - Water Dragons
1.0 Trionix - Smooth soft shell turtle
1.0 Apalone - Spiny texas soft shell turtle
0.1 Irish Brook M - Standardbred mare (retired racehorse)
1.0 Sir Edward - Ragdoll cat, sire
0.3 Shannan, Jalisse, Slick - cats
?.? Some fish

Yeah, Lucutis does the exact same thing. I can only tell when I am touching him as I take him out...when he doesn't want to abandon the safety of his branch, which is most of the time...lol. I just thought he was really scared, and it was some sort of defense reflex. Not sure how effective it would really be, though.

When I had fish, I had this clown pleco that would vibrate when I picked him up (that sounds wierd...who picks up a fish?). So, thats my guess...some kind of defense mechanism? Maybe predators don't like vibration in their mouths?

I hope somebody knows the real answer...I'm really curious about this now.
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1.1.0 Leopard Geckos (Booger & Gimp)
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon (Lucutis)
0.0.1 Quince Monitor (Pollux)
1.0.0 Thayeri Kingsnake (Corbin)

cham vibrating has come up from time to time here and I believe it is used as a defense mechanism. In nature if a predator grabs an animal that begins to vibrate it may well ward it off. I am sure someone here can give a more definitive answer.
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info
1.0 Nosy Be Panther Chameleon - Cyrus
0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
1.1 Side-blotched lizards - swifty and blotcha for now
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh Died 4/21/06
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha donated to science 4/4/06
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

Here are some sites that talk about it....
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/5014/hoot.html
http://www.chameleonnews.com/year2003/may2003/infrasound/infrasound.html

http://adcham.com/html/taxonomy/species/chcalyptratus.html
"Some authorities have suggested that the casque may serve as a device to aid the collection of water while others believe that it might serve in heat dissipation. A more recent (unpublished) speculation is that the casque might serve to amplify the low frequency "buzzing" used by veileds to communicate. Similar crests are thought to have performed that function in some prehistoric sauropods. This infrasonic communication was first described by Kenny Barnett and his colleagues in an article published in the journal, Copeia. (Barnett, K. E.; Cocroft, R. B.; Fleishman, L. J. Possible Communication by Substrate Vibration in a Chameleon. Copeia; 1999(1):225-228. 1999). See http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/5014/hoot.html for more information on this phenomenon. Subsequently, there have reports of similar behavior in numerous chamaeleonid species. Below is a partial list of species reported in personal communications to exhibiting the "buzzing" behavior similar to that of C. calyptratus.

* B. decaryi (E. Edwards)
* B. thieli (E. Edwards; L. Horgan)
* C. dilepis (K. Barnett)
* C. Johnstoni (F. LeBerre)
* C. melleri (A. Banks)
* C. Oweni (F. LeBerre)
* C. senegalensis (K. Barnett)
* F. ousteleti (multiple ADCHAM list members)
* F. pardalis (multiple ADCHAM list members)
* R. brachyurus (J. Mease)
* R. brevicaudatus (J. Mease)
* R. kerstenii robecchii (E. Edwards; J. Mease)
* R. uluguruensis (J. Mease) "

Another "thing" of interest...chameleons that play dead when startled or to avoid being eaten...R. brevicaudatus, B. Theili and others do this and they do it very well. I have known people who disposed of what they thought was a dead body only to find that the body got up and "ran" away after.
http://photos.wildmadagascar.org/images/brookesia10290052.shtml

And the lens of their eyes is different too....they have a negative lens that makes light diverge rather than converge.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=7854450&dopt=Abstract

How about this one....its a picture of a full grown member of the smallest known species of chameleon...
http://photos.wildmadagascar.org/images/1997bminima_gum_close.shtml

That is really interesting! And I have NEVER see such a tiny chameleon. And as for that Brookesia playing dead...sheesh, it took me a while to even find the dang thing in the picture!

Great information..thanks!
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1.1.0 Leopard Geckos (Booger & Gimp)
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon (Lucutis)
0.0.1 Quince Monitor (Pollux)
1.0.0 Thayeri Kingsnake (Corbin)

There seems to be a good deal of communication going on with the low frequency sound and vibrations - my deremensis were able to detect each other despite having a very good visual barrier between each other. Besides, how else can melleri tell that the others are male or female????

Thank you! Very interesting informations!

Ch.
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1.1 Skipper & Sunshine - Veiled Chameleons
1.1 Jimmy & Hydra - Water Dragons
1.0 Trionix - Smooth soft shell turtle
1.0 Apalone - Spiny texas soft shell turtle
0.1 Irish Brook M - Standardbred mare (retired racehorse)
1.0 Sir Edward - Ragdoll cat, sire
0.3 Shannan, Jalisse, Slick - cats
?.? Some fish

Soooo tiny! They really come that small?

Still learning on a daily basis.

Kris
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2.1 Black Labs Tucker, Raider and Lacey
1.0 Lepoard Gecko Kumar (Another lost pet RIP and party on with Harold!)
3.0 Horses Smoothie, Rocky and Bogey
1.0 Husbands (he puts up with me)
1.2 Kids-Trevor, Logan and Rylie
1.1 Ferrets Tank and Ellie (The fun fuzzies)
1.1 Veiled Chams Squiggy and Pudge (may she RIP)
0.1 Snowflake Cornsnake Lucky

There are several that are quite small but that's the smallest that I know of.
This one gets to about 4"...
http://adcham.com/images/images-species/B.thieli/Brookesiathieli2.jpg
Here's another picture from the ADCHAM forum of a B. minima...
http://adcham.com/images/images-species/B.minima/femaleminima.JPG

Kinyonga: You do the absolute BEST research. We can always count on you for not only an answer but documentation as well. I wanted you to know how much I appreciate your extra effort! a BIG THANK YOU! Diane
PS I wish I had known about the "playing dead" thing. Now I wonder if my little pig was dead after all! What if I threw him away and he was still alive? How awful!
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago
Valentino, Veiled Chameleon
Chyam, Nosy Be Panther Chameleon

You said..."Kinyonga: You do the absolute BEST research. We can always count on you for not only an answer but documentation as well. I wanted you to know how much I appreciate your extra effort! a BIG THANK YOU! Diane"...thanks Diane! You made my day! I always like to back up what I have to say if I can...but I don't always have the time to. I'm also always glad to share whatever I have learned with everyone!

You said..."PS I wish I had known about the "playing dead" thing. Now I wonder if my little pig was dead after all! What if I threw him away and he was still alive? How awful!"...was it a brev.? I hope he was really dead too...even though it would have been best if he had been alive and still in your care.
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it was a brev and it was pretty stiff and lying on the bottom of the cage when I came home from work. I'm pretty sure it was the male and the female is still doing fine a month later. Diane
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dianedfisher@yahoo.com

My 3 CWD-Avanyu, Tripod and Drago
Valentino, Veiled Chameleon
Chyam, Nosy Be Panther Chameleon

You said..."it was a brev and it was pretty stiff and lying on the bottom of the cage when I came home from work. I'm pretty sure it was the male and the female is still doing fine a month later"...I would think it was really dead. Its usually only when they are startled or scared that they do this "faking death" thing.