Woman looks out window and sees chameleon stuck on California power line — for days

A chameleon might be the last thing you expect to see hanging out on a power line.

But one was spotted stranded on a California power line for three days by a hawk-eyed observer, the Peninsula Humane Society said. The woman looked out the window of her home to see the lizard stuck on the wire.

“We received a call yesterday from a concerned neighbor who from a window of her home spotted a Chameleon stuck on a power line in Daly City,” the humane society’s communications manager Buffy Martin Tarbox said in the news release. “According to the neighbor, the poor lizard had been stranded on the wire for three days. “

The chameleon was carefully captured with a “wooden handled tool” and taken to the animal shelter.

The lizard is only native in Africa, so it’s likely the chameleon escaped from a pet shop or is someone’s pet, the humane society said.

“To date, we haven’t found a lost report that fits this little animal,” Tarbox said. “But we are well prepared to find a suitable home should that prove necessary.“

How did the lizard get up there, though? While chameleons are known for their color-changing skills, they’re also great climbers, according to Live Science.

“New research suggests that chameleons can scale trees because they have twice as many bones in their wrists and ankles when they are developing as scientists had previously thought,” Live Science reported. “Many chameleon species are very well suited to climbing trees because of their unusual ‘two-toed’ hands and feet.”

This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Woman looks out window and sees chameleon stuck on California power line — for days."