HEAR THE "CALL OF THE CHAMELEON!" as a RealAudio file

HEAR THE "CALL OF THE CHAMELEON!" as a short .WAV file

ZAPPA ©1999 K. Barnett

In Early 1994, my wife and I surmised that the strange vibrations produced by Veiled Chameleons may be due to low frequency sound production. After placing the chameleon to my ear, I was able to hear a very low, barely audible sound emanating from a male, adult animal. With the expert assistance of Dr. Leo Fleishman of Union College in Schenectady, and subsequently Dr. Rex Cocroft (at Cornell University at that time), we were able to record (using accelerometers) for the first time, the ethereal "hoot" of the Veiled Chameleon. We propose that this vibratory sound production, may be a form of communication whereby such signals are transmitted through branches. Since the article was written (Barnett, Kenneth E.; Cocroft, Reginald B.; Fleishman, Leo J. Possible Communication by Substrate Vibration in a Chameleon. Copeia; 1999(1):225-228. 1999), it now appears that the use of vibratory sound may be quite wide spread among True Chameleons. Additionally, there appears to be several types of sounds used in different behavioral settings. Understanding the behavioral significance of these sounds, how the sounds are made, and how the sounds have diverged/converged with chameleon evolution....are only some of the many questions that remain to be answered.

The following RealPlayer file contains the calls of a single adult male chameleon. I hope to post a video segment demonstrating male/female reciprocal calling in the near future.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE "CALL OF THE CHAMELEON!" in RealAudio

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN to a short .WAV version of the "CALL OF THE CHAMELEON!"

Want to talk about chameleons or recieve a reprint of the Copeia artilce?.....drop me a hoot at: kbgecko@aol.com

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