Three-horned Challenger

Ah, behold! Triceros jacksonii xantholophus, the awesome Yellow-crested Jackson's Chameleon of east Africa. The great challenge today will be keeping this entry short and sweet--there is a whole lot to say about this creature. Deep breath, here goes.....

Jackson's Chameleon was first described in 1896. Who was Jackson, you may wonder? He was a British ornithologist who happened to be governor of Kenya (where it was found) at that time. The Yellow-crested subspecies originates from the slopes of Mt. Kenya, and constitutes the entire population of Jackson'ses in Hawaii.

How did they get here? Well, these guys were big in the exotic pet trade in the 1970's. Before Kenya started disallowing the export of chameleons, a pet shop owner on Oahu requested under permit to receive a batch of them. When they arrived, they were thin and sickly, so he stuck them out in his backyard, presumably to let them fatten up and get presentable. And the rest is history. They have now established populations on Oahu, the Big Island, Maui, and Kauai.

Jackson's' are highly territorial, changing color and gesturing wildly at any sign of threat. The males sport three large horns on their head (hence the name Triceros) while the smaller females do not. Offspring gestate over 5 months; mothers give birth to between 10 and 40(!) live young. Their tongues can be up to 1.5 times their entire body length (which is 12 inches in mature males)--the tongue is equipped with a suction cup-like end for locking onto insect prey.

Now the story of how I came upon this cold-blooded masterpiece. I was walking home from the laundromat and there he was--sitting in the road. I knew they lived on the islands but today was the first time I saw one alive. I thought he wouldn't fare too well where he was, so I put him in my backpack to bring home. Once back on the farm, I set him down on the ground and he bee-lined it for the nearest tree (you must understand though--these guys move like sloths; i.e. very, very slowly and methodically) and climbed up. But as he was ascending, a second even larger Jackson came down from up above to see meet this intruder. What ensued was the most epic 3-hour slow-motion light-saber head-butt chameleon duel the likes of which I may never see again!!

And in the end, in fact, it was the challenger (who through the course of the battling changed from a dimunitive dark green to defiant neon lime and turquoise) who secured his place as lord of the tree. The original resident was forced to slink off to find himself a new arboreal abode. And so to the unlikely victor went the spoils.