The Illegal and Secretive World of Chameleon Ranching | National Geographic

Chameleons have a lot of crazy things going on and are pretty unique in the lizard world. They have these independently rotating googly eyes, this prehensile tail which is basically a monkey tail they can use like a fifth limb, and spring-loaded tongs that shoot out to catch their food. Of course, everyone's heard that chameleons can change colors to match their background, although that's not actually true. They shift colors based on their mood or temperature, and some of the biggest color shows are between fighting males.

Because of all this, chameleons have become popular pets in the US. Like so many other exotic pets, they've somehow ended up in the wilds of Florida, the state that is now home to more non-native reptiles than anywhere else in the world. What’s curious about chameleons is, in contrast to more infamous outsiders like the Burmese python or the Argentine tegu, they don't actually spread far on their own. They’re slow-moving lizards that tend to stick to a small range.

So how is it that they've been making their way through South Florida for years and no one is really talking about it? For a long time, you could pretty much only buy imported chameleons, and they were kind of pricey. The importers were getting shipments from across the world—hundreds of thousands over time, mostly from Yemen and Madagascar. Some people figured they could make their living buying and selling reptiles.

"Anywhere you see pretty green trees on the entire disc, the entire house here was 100% decaying shelters for lizards and snakes and aardvarks—like Dr. Dolittle on acid, kind of thing. It was crazy." This is Brandon. His family owns a popular fruit stand in South Florida, and on one of their orchards is a home that was once rented out to a reptile dealer. Almost you can see the ones they were in the cages, but then you can see the trees next to it—that's the same lizards.

They ended up evicting the reptile guy and Brandon's brother moved into the house. But word had gotten out that you could find escaped chameleons on their orchard. "My brother was up one morning; he was taking a shower and he caught a light out of his window where it shouldn't have been—a light. So he just panicked, grabs his pistol, and he runs out the door, Jaybird pistol firing in the air and trying to kill or not. There was definitely people in the back edge, which works great for the chameleons."

Okay, who would risk getting shot at in the middle of the night for a chameleon? These are members of a Herpetological Society—big-time amphibian and reptile fans. They’re known as herpers for short. "In our free time, we don’t go out drinking; we could go out herping chameleon spots, and the best way to find them was to go out at night and shine flashlights into the bushes. A sleeping chameleon will turn a slightly different colored green than the leaves around it."

While it is definitely illegal to release any exotic species in Florida, there's nothing that's really keeping people from catching and keeping chameleons that are already loose. If you really want to find a lot of chameleons in a lot of different spots, you have to do a lot of sleuthing. There’s a whole world of secretive online forums and herpers who refuse to share their chameleons' locations.

"I had a big notebook of clues that I've been given, and I actually found a chameleon spot because someone mentioned they had thrown an avocado at the chameleon, and that was the last piece of the puzzle. I found the spot a couple of weeks after that." They’re in all of these secret spots that are not just next to breeders; they're on public property, sometimes right next to the side of the road, miles away from it.

But people have actually started taking chameleons and letting them go into a patch of woods behind their house or something to that effect. They will breed in time. You can go back to collect from their babies—getting free food, free water, free care—and make money off of those. This has become known as chameleon ranch.

"When I got started, it was an easy way to make extra cash, but now there are holy enthusiasts who are also spreading chameleons just for the adventure of returning to find them." Both groups are moving civilians to new spots. If a secret location gets found out, others go and collect every chameleon they can find. Now this has been going on for long enough that you wonder what it might take to stop the spread and if it's even possible.

At this point, there are 180 species of reptile and amphibian introduced to the state of Florida. Sixty-three of those have become established. "We would love to tackle every invasive species problem that comes up, but we don’t even have the resources to tackle the high-priority ones correctly. You know, chameleons are pretty low on the totem pole."

Not enough studies exist to know if chameleons are truly invasive, and so they remain somewhat unchecked in the shadow of more damaging reptiles. As wild and captive bred Florida chameleons were added to the market with a reputation for being hardier, the shipments from lizards caught and sold in their home countries actually dropped.

So for better or worse, between all the guns, shadows, and secrets, it seems like these chameleons are here to stay.