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Seeing the panther chameleon hide behind the leaves, the visitors gradually dispersed to look at other animals.

Daigo looked at the half of the chameleon's body sticking out from the leaves and stroked his chin, musing, "Hmm, aren't chameleons supposed to change their body color to match their environment? The enclosure here has brown tree trunks and green leaves, so why would its body turn red and yellow? And there's even blue on it, how does it change to that?"

Lin Hao shook his head somewhat puzzledly, indicating that he wasn't very clear about it either.

The educational exhibit signs in the reptile house were relatively fewer because of the large number of animals present. Apart from animals like the Chinese giant salamander, which were given more focus, not every animal had a detailed exhibit sign—just a picture of the animal, its habitat, and a simple introduction were provided.

The educational signs were generally located at the corners of the gallery walkways, mainly introducing a certain category of animals!

Lili browsed more casually, not examining each exhibit box as the two men did. She hardly looked at lizards and little turtles that seemed dull and plain, only admiring the animals with higher visual appeal and beautiful appearances for a long time.

By this time, she had moved on ahead and quietly called the others, pointing at a sign in front of her: "Hey, look, there's an explanation for why chameleons change colors!"

The sign began with two very interesting questions!

If a chameleon were placed on a neon light that continuously changed color, would the chameleon keep changing its color until it died of exhaustion?

If someone threw a handful of colorful rainbow candy towards a chameleon, what color would it become?

Daigo was immediately startled: "Holy shit, who comes up with these ideas? Lovers of chameleons express strong condemnation towards neon lights and rainbow candy!"

Lin Hao couldn't help but comment: "The chameleon says, 'I might not be human, but you guys are really dogs!'"

They didn't rush to read the reasons but first pondered on their own.

The first question should be a no, right? If it really kept changing colors until death, it wouldn't be dying of exhaustion, but rather of stupidity.

Throwing rainbow candy—would it randomly turn into some color, or keep changing colors?

However, he soon dismissed that idea because they had just witnessed an example of the chameleon changing color. The enclosure contained tree trunks and green leaves, yet the chameleon turned red and yellow, which had nothing to do with the environment!

The information on the sign explained that in the biological world, colors originate from two sources: pigment coloration and structural coloration!

Pigment coloration is due to chemical substances absorbing and reflecting certain wavelengths of visible light, whereas structural coloration is the color produced by a physical structure, like the rainbow on a CD.
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It was once believed that the color changes in chameleons were due to external environmental stimuli that caused a redistribution of pigment granules in skin cells, thereby changing their coloration. But recent research has found that many chameleons actually lack green pigment.

So why can they appear green? It's because beneath the pigment cells on the surface of chameleons' skin lies a layer of iridophores. These cells contain nanocrystals arranged in a triangular lattice, and these crystals are the key factor in color change.

When a chameleon is relaxed, the crystals in the iridophores are packed tightly and reflect blue light, which, passing through the yellow pigment of the outer skin, makes the chameleon appear green.

When stressed, the spacing between the crystals expands, allowing light of longer wavelengths to be reflected, causing the chameleon's color to change within the range of yellow to red.

Thus, the coloration a chameleon presents to the human eye is a combination of the chemical colors of the pigment cells and the structural colors reflected by the iridophore layer.

Generally, only male chameleons have vivid and striking colors, while females are much duller, and this is because males have a more developed layer of iridophores.

Therefore, chameleons primarily change color to express emotions and send signals, acting as a language for communication and interaction among themselves!

"So that's how it is!"

Lin Hao had an epiphany after reading the display board.

Thinking about the question mentioned at the beginning of the board, when the neon light changes color, the chameleon perched on it simply remains green and indifferent, right?

So, the panther chameleon just now probably turned red and yellow because it got nervous from being watched by visitors, and then it hid behind the leaves.

With this knowledge, he looked back at the enclosure of the panther chameleon he'd seen earlier.

Now that the visitors had dispersed, it crawled out from behind the leaves again, regaining its calm blue-green hue.

Lin Hao felt a strange sensation in his heart; he had initially only admired its rainbow-like beauty, but now he suddenly could sense its mood.

It truly was an animal whose "emotions are reflected in its color!"

He couldn't help but tell Daigo, "Actually, I wasn't particularly excited about visiting today, thinking reptiles were cold and boring, but my impression has somewhat changed now, they seem quite interesting! I'm even considering getting myself a chameleon."

Daigo chuckled and said, "Yeah! Especially the environment of the exhibit hall, it's fantastic. I think anything looks interesting in such a beautiful exhibition space."

Lizards, turtles, chameleons, frogs, snakes, all kinds of animals from various environments are kept together. After all, to the average visitor, the differences don't seem very big, and if one type of animal were only kept in one area, it would become visually tiring after a while.

Mixing them together like this helps maintain a fresh visiting experience.

As Lin Hao wandered, he was again attracted by a python in a large display case.

The enclosure boasted richly layered green vegetation, with fresh green moss and ferns at the bottom and climbing figs creeping up the back walls, with a few glistening dewdrops on the leaves, as if it had just rained, bringing a wave of moisture to the face.

It was as if a corner of the tropical rainforest had been captured inside the enclosure!

Several pieces of driftwood were artistically arranged, and on a horizontal trunk slightly above eye level was a heap of green python.

It was draped more than entwined, in the shape of two outward nested "U"s, with its head resting in the middle of the "U", its tail not visible.

In the white eyes, there was a black line, probably the pupil of the green tree python, which looked as if it was about to break, giving it an immovable, sleepy appearance.

On its neatly aligned scales, there lingered some clear, shiny droplets, like freshly rained-on bamboo, vivid and enticing, incredibly beautiful!

"What a beautiful snake!"

Lin Hao was awestruck once more and bent down to look at the label below.

Green tree python, native to places like Australia, a small, arboreal species of python!

Adults generally don't grow beyond 1.8 meters.

A family of three passed by, and the little boy stared at the green tree python, exclaiming with unrestrained joy, "Mama, look, this snake is so pretty!"

The mother, looking scared, clutched her husband's hand, "Oh no, don't let me see snakes; I just can't stand them, they give me the creeps."

After admiring it for a while and seeing that the green tree python looked fast asleep, motionless, Lin Hao moved on to see other animals.