Chameleons have weird eyes that rotate all over the place. This is one of their most defining features as well. It makes you wonder if it’s a gimmick or does it serve a specific purpose. Why do chameleons’ eyes rotate around like they are having a spasm?
Chameleons’ eyes rotate around due to their distinctive eye anatomy. Their eyes need to be able to rotate for the sake of survival and do their everyday tasks. Hence, chameleons’ eyes were formed in a way that allows them to rotate with a very high degree of freedom, unlike most animals.
So, turns out a chameleon doesn’t just rotate their eyes around randomly to look stupid. Their eyes are so practical and useful that they have been deemed to have one of the best eyes among animals in general. Let’s dive into the details of why a chameleon’s eyes rotate around.
How Do Chameleons’ Eyes Rotate?
Chameleons have very distinctive eyes that separate them from other reptiles. The reason why their eyes can rotate can be narrowed down to two abilities associated with their eyes. Here is how a chameleon rotates its eyes around.
Anatomical Feature
Many things in a chameleons’ eyes work together to allow it to rotate with the freedom it has. First of all, chameleons have eyes to the side like a chicken. However, chameleons have the ability to turn their eyes to the front, unlike chickens.
On the inside of their eyes, chameleons have their eyeballs mounted on twin cone-like turrets. If you’re having a hard time understanding, imagine two ice cream cones that are upside-down being inside their eye sockets.
This is unlike human eye sockets because we have what we call a deep orbital socket. This socket is responsible for keeping your eyes in and prevents them from dropping out.
Chameleons don’t have this deep orbital socket. Instead, they have evolved their eyelids to be stronger than the usual eyelid. Not only that, but their eyelids don’t close all the way as well.
These strong eyelids only close till the pupil is left exposed and keep the eye inside the socket. Without these deep orbital sockets, each of the chameleon’s eyes can rotate a full 180°. This gives the chameleon a much wider range of vision than animals with secure eye sockets.
Transitioning Between
Other than a distinct anatomical feature, chameleons also have an ability almost unique to them that allows their eyes to rotate around. This is their ability to switch between monocular and binocular vision at will depending on the situation.
With this ability, it allows a chameleon to look at things panoramically, significantly improving their chance of survivability.
When they switch to monocular vision, they will be able to scout things out far better as they have access to an almost 360° view of their surroundings.
When this happens, two separate images are sent to the brain to register both images without confusing the chameleon. Imagine when you are crossing the road, and you can look at both left and right at the same time!
If they found the thing they want to hunt, they can refocus themselves to use binocular vision which gives more focus on a target subject.
Once this happens, their eye neurons form a larger neuron bundle, which gives them much more clarity. This ability makes them bounds and leaps ahead when it comes to protection, food scouting, and reflexes.
Why Do Chameleons’ Eyes Need To Rotate?
With a chameleon’s eyes being able to rotate so much and see so many things, there has to be a reason behind it. Animals don’t just do random things out of boredom or amusement, it’s all for the sake of survival.
Survival
Being able to see at an almost 360° angle, chameleons have much more protection when compared to the average animal. Coupled with their amazing vision, they can see just about anything that is happening around them.
They’ll be able to watch their backs while keeping a vision of what is in front of them at the same time. It’s almost as if they have a CCTV-like structure for their eyes.
You’re not going to surprise a chameleon behind them any time soon unless you’re extremely fast. Not only does it help with protecting themselves, but it also gives them a huge advantage when it comes to food.
Food is a very scarce resource in the wild, with all animals fighting to survive and having similar food taste at the same time. Chameleons can do so much better at hunting with their rotating vision simply because they can see everything around them.
Usual hiding tricks won’t work on a chameleon because there is almost no place to hide unless you are directly behind a larger object.
When a chameleon has finally scouted out its next meal, it will simply switch back to a binocular vision which will then give it more focus on the target. A chameleon’s prey will be dead even before a chameleon’s mouth is open considering how fast their tongues are.
They can even do this without moving their heads as we do, giving the impression they aren’t actively hunting at all. It just adds to the element of surprise.
Climbing
Their rotating vision doesn’t just help with survival, but it helps them with their most basic instincts as well, climbing. Chameleons are arboreal creatures that spend their entire lives climbing among the trees.
They have been doing so for millions of years and their eyes are one of the key answers as to why they are so good at climbing. If you’ve ever had a hand at climbing anything, you would know how dangerous it is to not know where to climb next without falling.
Chameleons won’t have that problem, considering that they can see everything around them all the time. This just adds that extra security on top of the sharpness of their claws and the versatility of their tails that help secure them on branches.
Don’t need to worry about that life-threatening misstep any time soon. Even if they do misstep, they will be able to know where to land to minimize the damage as much as possible.
Chameleons can also spot out any dangers that await them somewhere else while they are climbing. No animal can hide around the corner without the chameleon noticing it.
Well, not unless you can turn completely invisible, or run at the speed of lightning. All this is made possible by their ability to rotate their eyes around.
Conclusion
Chameleons can rotate their eyes around due to the distinct features that they have in their eyes where no other animals have.
Not only are they unhinged when it comes to rotation, but they can rotate each eye independently while keeping their vision separated. This ability to rotate their eyes gives them a significant advantage when it comes to survival.
Not only does it make them more efficient hunters, but it makes them a different kind of protection as well. Climbing is a huge part of a chameleon’s life as well, and being able to see where you’re going helps.
I wonder what it feels like to be able to look in front and behind at the same time. Sounds very trippy, doesn’t it?
