The panther chameleon is native to northern and eastern Madagascar, and has also been introduced to Réunion and Mauritius.

According to its entry on Wikipedia, “Like most species of chameleons, the panther chameleon is very territorial. It spends the majority of its life in isolation, apart from mating sessions. When two males come into contact, they will change color and inflate their bodies, attempting to assert their dominance. Often these battles end at this stage, with the loser retreating, turning drab and dark colors. Occasionally, the displays result in physical combat if neither contender backs down.”

This photo comes to us from Wikimedia Commons, the freely licensed media repository whose holdings are extensively used on Wikimedia’s many projects, including Wikipedia. You can use the photo for just about any purpose as long as you credit the author (Charles J Sharp/Sharp Photography), copyright license (CC BY-SA 4.0), and link to the original URL.

Ed Erhart, Senior Editorial Associate, Communications
Wikimedia Foundation

This post is the sixth installment of a weekly series. We’ll be off next week for Wikimania, the annual conference behind Wikipedia, but tune back in two weeks for another photo selection from Wikimedia Commons. If you’d like, you can sign up for our MailChimp mailing list to be notified when the next edition is published.