Seeing / Visual

Most chameleons possess a pineal eye, also called a parietal or third eye, extruding from the brain to the center of the forehead. A hole in the skull allows it to sense heat and light. A layer of skin and connective material covers and protects it.

Role of a pineal eye

It is to control the activities of basking, breeding, egg laying and hibernation of a chameleon.

Chameleons communicate through visual cues conveyed by colour and posture changes, and they read the cues with their colour vision with the impoverishment of its other senses. Chameleons depend on their eyes to detect rivals, mates, predators and prey.

The chameleon eye contains vastly more cells used for vision than in humans. Each eye covers 180 degrees and operates independently of the other. When both of them work together, they provide nearly 360-degree vision without turning the head, and allow the chameleon to see in front of and behind him.

Chameleons can hunt and spy predators without moving their heads or bodies. When it spots a likely meal, both eyes converge on the target, giving the chameleon a silly, cross-eyed look. Some chameleons can hunt with one eye altthough their success rate drops to a little less than two out of three.