Interactions
Interactions With Humans:
The Jackson's Chameleon has many interactions with other
species. One of the main
interactions it has is
with humans! Many people like having this unique organism as a
pet. It has gained
popularity as a funky pet in many homes across the United
States. This organism
went from only being found in the wild in its own natural
habitat to now living along side
people in their homes.
Between 1977 and 1981, the popularity of this pet skyrocketed
and caused a high increase of exports from Africa (Carpenter et
al. 2004).
Predation and Invasive Species:
Just like the
nutrition
page stated, the
Jackson's Chameleon is a predator. A group of
t.jpg/1280px-Sympetrum_flaveolum_-_side_(aka).jpg)
he Chameleons
was
brought to Hawaii from Kenya in the early 1970's as intention of
being pets. One of the
first shipments of these animals was not in very good condition and
it was placed outside where many of them were released.
This was the first known time that the Chameleons were
released into the environment of Hawaii.
This slowly increased to a self-sustaining population of
lizards. Because
of this event in history, the Chameleon is now interacting with some
of the native species of Hawaii.
The interaction of the lizard with the native population is
predation. It hunts
snails, grasshoppers, caterpillars, planthoppers, beetles, and
dragonflies (Costello et al. 2009). There is
speculation to whether this is good or bad to the environment of
Hawaii. Some argue that
the lizard is killing too many of these small critters while some
argue that the lizard is merely controlling the population of the
critters.
**If you want to learn more about what role these small insects play in the chameleon's life, click here!