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This may or may not have been posted a hundred times. I was at the MARS show, and started wondering what advantage it would have for the color change between juveniles and adults? Particularly since there is such drastic color changes, and also how babies can be red or yellow. It just let me without an idea from the biological standpoint. I was also suprized to have dinner with some of the Chondro Coalition Saturday night, so I now have a renewed interest in keeping some in the near future.
Best,
Justin Yeager

plant colors around the time of the year that hatching occurs. These little guys probably don't make it as high as their larger parents and therefore need the color markings to be the fittest for surival for their time of the year and color of plants that time of year for the distance they can climb. It's all about blending in, looking the scariest or least appealing I suppose...

evolution is powerful and fun as hell to question...

There have been a few different theories posited for why babies are born such contrasting colors from the adults. One of them even mentions that the red neonates are invisible to predators that see in ultraviolet or infra-red. I personally find this theory somewhat laughable as I have never heard of any animals that hunt using such a sense, nor any that possess such visual acuity.

Now, as you mentioned the baby colors help them hide out in plants, I agree with that. Baby and even adult Eyelash Vipers have been known to set up ambushes in flowering plants that are in bloom. These plants attract insects, which in turn attract frogs, lizards, and small birds, which the snakes then feed on. If you look at the colors of baby chondros, I could definitely see this working out quite well for them. But then again, I have seen no real studies on wild hatchlings to really say how true this might be.

I wonder if there also would be a difference in the height at which they perch...maybe babies stay closed to the ground where small food is abundant while adults tend to rest more on the treetops and because they eat bigger meals may not need to be close to the ground...maybe vegetation on the treetops is always green while closer to the ground there might be brown, or yellow leaves or maybe just more variety of colors than on the treetops...just guessing..

All of your statments make sense, however, why red and why yellow? I'm not a world traveler, but I spent the first half of this year living in Central America, and there isn't all that much that I have seen that is bright red, nor that shade of yellow. I'm not disagreeing, but I'm questioning how these colors won over the others.

>>Baby and even adult Eyelash Vipers have been known to set up >>ambushes in flowering plants that are in bloom.

This is normally associated with Heliconia group plants where the B. schlegelii catch hummingbirds (there is a great BBC show done capturing this in La Selva). I've also seen an adult right next to a hummingbird nest waiting for it to come back. Back to green trees though. I just was confused how and why there are two colors for babies, and why. The red is really the one that gets me. How/why are there such opposite colors for babies to adopt (can someone also explain when you get red babies and when you get the yellows-- as in with what 'morph' are you more likely to get which), when there is no aposematic reason nor any other mimicry (that I'm aware of). Thanks for bearing with my ponderings and replying. I'm working on saving to get a few babies in the next year or so after having dinner with the Chondro Coalition-- they convinced me it was not that hard and worth it.
Best,
Justin

and most likely would be lower to the ground. I would guess that the hatchlings hunt on the ground or not to far above it.
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