Models painted with female-like colors elicited courtship by male common chameleons: Evidence for a courtship releaser

Abstract

Female common chameleonChamaeleo chamaeleon shows shifts in body colorations during the mating season associated with their sexual stage. The hypothesis that female colorations are used in the inter-sexual communication was tested in the field by using plastic models painted with female-like colors. Three female colorations (Neutral, Receptive and Gravid) and two artificial colorations (White and White plus black spots) as control were used. Twenty models (5 colorations × 4 replicas) were simultaneously located in the field (n=25 experiments), and the reaction by males was scored from 0 (no reaction) to 4 (copulation attempt). A male was observed nearby a model in 59 out of 500 displays. A total of 23 males (38.9%) actively reacted to the model. The response significantly differed among color types, and receptive-like models obtained the strongest response by males. In five cases, males attempted to copulate with the model. The response to receptive coloration by males agrees with previous field studies and suggests that yellow spots with a green background is a courtship releaser.