A snake handler was called out to deal with an entirely different species than he’s accustomed to – and the beautiful creature completely blew his mind.
Bruce Ireland described the incident in California as “crazy and amazing” on YouTube, where he showcased an animal that had been seen “crawling around the neighbourhood”. He said: “Usually I get snake calls, but today this gentleman found this dude.”
He then revealed a chameleon from a container, which seemed quite content to familiarise itself with Bruce, even perching on his shoulder and baseball cap. He exclaimed joyfully: “Oh my God, you have got to be kidding me!”
By this point, the chameleon, now named Max by Bruce, had largely changed colour from its natural green to a stunning turquoise. “What a trip!” Bruce continued. “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 subscribers were equally impressed, with thousands commenting on the lizard’s beauty. One gushed: “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.”
Another commenter chimed in, saying: “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!”
A third user was impressed by the owner’s expertise, adding: “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!”
A fourth commenter noted: “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 experts at Chameleon Academy, panther chameleons inhabit the regions of Madagascar from around the central Eastern coast all the way around the Northern tip and down almost to the central Western coast.
They added: “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 colour 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 grey, but the females of all the locales show the same colour variations so there is no way to tell the locale of the females just by looking at her.”