I grew up in Africa.<p>African chameleons are <i>very</i> cool critters.<p>Where I lived, most were about three inches long (in the body). The tails could be a lot longer. The tails are prehensile, and the lizards use them as anchors.<p>Their feet end in these opposable little claws. Their eyes are completely independent of each other, and are usually wandering around, looking at everything around them.<p>Their camouflage is <i>very</i> good. They can become downright invisible in seconds.<p>They are also slow, and easy to catch.<p>We used to catch them, then put them on our index fingers, facing out. They would wrap their tails around our fingers, and didn't usually make much of an effort to escape. Real laconic little buggers.<p>We'd point them at flies. When they spotted a fly, both eyes would snap to the front, forming a binocular pair. Their mouths would slowly open, exposing their tongue.<p>Then the tongue would shoot out, fast as hell. It was often a lot longer than the chameleon. The end of the tongue has a sticky bulb that grabs the fly.<p>The next thing you know, they are calmly chewing (yes, they chew) their new snack.<p>After we got bored, we'd put them back into a bush, where they would calmly get off our finger, and change color.