Science Explains How Chameleons Capture Their Prey

When it comes to catching their prey, there is hardly any animal that is as precise as a chameleon. Even though these creatures have a nonchalant appearance, they do not fail at whipping their tongues out to capture prey that can weight up to 30 percent of their weight.

A team of researchers from several different universities recently studied the sticky weapon that chameleons possess. While catching their prey, a chameleon sticks out its tongue with an acceleration of up to 1500 meters per second square. In addition, the tongue can reach a length twice that of the body of the creature, thus, leaving a little chance for the prey to escape its predator.

According to the research team, the mucus released from the tip of a chameleon's tongue is approximately 400 times more adhesive and more viscous than human saliva. The deformability of the tongue during projection provide a larger surface area for the chameleon to catch its prey. The combination of highly viscous saliva and larger surface area acts as a perfect adhesive weapon for catching a prey.

During the study, the researchers used mechanical tools and tongue morphology measurement to explain how viscous adhesion that forms when a chameleon tries to capture its prey is large enough for the action to be performed successfully. According to the researchers, the adhesion is large enough to capture prey with mass greater than that of the chameleon itself.

The researchers also compared their theoretical models with experimental data on the maximum prey size with respect to the size of the chameleon. The study results pave a new pathway for other researchers to study prey prehension by other predators such as toads and salamanders that use their tongues to catch prey.

The complete details of the study have been published in the journal Nature Physics.