This was taken on my last night in Morondava in Madagascar. As I was looking for a spot to photograph sunset in Madascar’s famous Baobab alley my guide spotted this amazing chameleon crossing the road.
As I was searching for a spot to photograph sunset in Baobab alley, my guide spotted this Oustalet’s chameleon crossing the road. The oustalet’s chameleon is one of the largest species of chameleons and is endemic to the island of Madagascar. Anyway, I was very excited and a little intimidated because I have never seen a chameleon this big before. This was a full adult male chameleon according to my guide; it was around 15 inches long! I only had my wide angle with me, so I quickly got into a position where I could let it just walk by. Initially I had scared it when I approached, probably because I was too excited and moving too fast. I quickly took a step back and reset. This time i moved much slower and slowly crouched on the ground. The chameleon froze for a bit, probably contemplating what this huge thing was doing. I just sat there still and eventually the chameleon proceeded to cross the road. Shortly after this was taken my guide had to remove it with a stick as big trucks were coming through on the road and we didn’t want him to get run over so we placed him in a tree.