Can chameleon blinds change color?

Chameleon is a reptile known for sophisticated camouflage by changing colors, they can change their colors to match the colors of their surroundings to evade enemies.

It is something everyone knows, but whether a chameleon is blind and can change its color is a question that is not answered by anyone. Many people will think that a blind chameleon will not be able to see the color of the surroundings, and therefore it will not be able to change color to resemble the environment. So how is the truth?

To answer this question, let's first try to understand how a chameleon can change the color of the body and why they need to do so. There is a truth that many people have mistaken, chameleon changes the color of the body not to disguise . There are about 160 different chameleon species in the world, they live in different environments from the jungle to the desert and even on the steep cliffs, they also have many different colors from green, orange, red, yellow .

These basic colors of chameleon are inherently new to the color of the environment in which they live, to help them disguise. We often see the chameleon moving very slowly, but in fact they can run at speeds up to 30km / h. So they do not need to change colors to camouflage to evade enemies, instead changing the color of the body helps them control the temperature and express their feelings with other geckos, or threaten the enemy.

Chameleon are cold-blooded reptiles , so they cannot regulate the body's temperature . Changing skin pigments is a way to help them maintain their body temperature. A chameleon when cold will turn the color into darker to help absorb heat better, otherwise if their body is hot, their skin will turn lighter to reduce the absorption of heat from the face God.

Besides adjusting the temperature, the chameleon also uses its ability to change colors to express emotions or threaten enemies. A comfortable chameleon will have a lighter color, while if someone detects an intruder, it will change to a darker color like red or black to threaten. During mating season, male chameleon will replace colorful clothes to attract mates. The female chameleon also uses the body's color to signal that it is ready for mating.

The ability to change the color of chameleon is one of the most wonderful things of nature. People have also been and will continue to study this color change mechanism to be applicable in industries. The outermost layer of the gecko has a transparent color, below this skin are pigmented cells, they are divided into different layers. The deepest layer contains melanophores with brown pigmentation like human skin. On this layer are blue pigment cells, reflecting blue and white light. The top layer is the pigment cells xanthophores and erythrophores, with yellow and red respectively.

Usually these pigment cells are kept in small bags under the skin. When the chameleon changes their body temperature or mood. Its nervous system controls the opening or closing of the cells containing this pigment cell, which, when opened, will help to change color on its skin. For each different species of gecko, they have different pigment cells and so their colors are very diverse.

Thus changing the body color of the chameleon is not intended to disguise, besides that they also do not use sight to observe the surrounding colors.Changing colors depends on the temperature and emotions of the gecko. Hence a blind chameleon can change its body color.

However blindness makes it impossible to see other geckos around, or to see enemies. Therefore, changing the colors due to emotions will be reduced. Even so, it can change colors to regulate the body's temperature, which is an unconditional and uncontrollable reflex.