Welcome to You Ask Andy

Joseph Marks, age 10, of Freeport, ME., for his question:

How can an anole climb up a smooth wall?

The chameleon is famous for changing the color of his skin. This Old World lizard is one of the world's oddest animals and far from handsome. The pretty little anole is often called the american chameleon because he, too, can change the color of his scaly skin.

When you buy a chameleon in a pet store, chances are his is an anole. The spry little lizard is a native of our southeastern states. He is full of fascinating tricks and if you provide the right home for him, he is quite happy to be adopted as a pet of the human family. The best home is a glass box with a floor of Earth and a miniature garden of growing plants.

He is used to a warm, moist climate and the temperature of his glass home should be kept between 80 and 85 degrees. Sprinkle the foliage with drops of water. This keeps the air moist and provides the little pet with drinking water, which he loves to lap from the leaves. Use a sheet of glass for a roof and lift it once a day to let in fresh air.

In the wilds, the anole is a shy fe11ow and the sound of footsteps sends him scooting away to hide in the bushes. But in time, the little pet may get to know you and trust you. You can watch him change his color from green to brown and back again. And one day you may be amazed to SEE him walk up the glass walls of his home.

The impossible trick is done by 10 tiny fingers and 10 tiny toes. Several climbing lizards have fingers and toes with special pads for gripping the small bumps on rocks and trees. The lizard type scales of these pads are extra wide and edged with hair like fringes. Such pads can grip and save the little climbers from falling when they climb straight up a smooth surface.

The anole also has special adhesive pads under the tips of his fingers and toes. These pads would not help you to climb up a smooth wall because you are too heavy. But the anole is small and very light. The adhesive pads on his 20 fingers and toes are sticky enough to hold his weight and save the little fellow from falling.

The male anole has a pink or red flap under his chin. When he meets another male anole.: the two are likely to scrap. They arch their backs, puff out their colorful chin flaps and toss all good sense to the winds. They forget that they must grip the twigs and foliage with fingers and toes and as a rule, the scrap ends with both of them tumbling to the ground.

 

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