CreatureData

Monk chameleon

Chamaeleo monachus Gray, 1865

Status not recordedlizards

The monk chameleon (Chamaeleo monachus) is a species in the family Chamaeleonidae, order Squamata. Recorded adults weigh about 36.9 g and reach 12.4 cm in length. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Yemen.

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Quick facts about the monk chameleon

Weight
36.9 g
Length
12.4 cm
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Carnivore
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
desert, shrubland
Young per litter or clutch
32 – 52
Reproduction
Eggs
Active
By day (diurnal)
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the monk chameleon?

MONK CHAMELEON · LENGTH 12.4 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 12.4 cm, the recorded maximum length of the monk chameleon is about 7.3% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the monk chameleon live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The monk chameleon is listed for 1 country.

Yemen
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Yemen

Is the monk chameleon endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the monk chameleon classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classReptilia
  4. orderSquamata
  5. familyChamaeleonidae
  6. genusChamaeleo
  7. SpeciesChamaeleo monachus Gray, 1865

Synonyms Chamaeleon verrucosus, Chameleo monachus

Other names and names in other languages (13)
  • Monarch chameleonEnglish
  • Socotra chameleonEnglish
  • Socotran chameleonEnglish
  • حرباء سقطرىArabic
  • Socotra-kamæleonDanish
  • Sokotra-ChamäleonGerman
  • Camaleón monjeSpanish
  • Caméléon-moineFrench
  • Camaleonte di SocotraItalian
  • ソコトラカメレオンJapanese
  • Sokotra BukalemunuTurkish
  • 索柯特拉避役Chinese
  • Camaleón de SocotraSpanish

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the monk chameleon

Other species in the same genus Chamaeleo.

CompareMonk chameleon vs Common chameleonMonk chameleon vs Yemen chameleonMonk chameleon vs Asian chameleonMonk chameleon vs Desert chameleon

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the monk chameleon?

An adult monk chameleon weighs 36.9 g and measures 12.4 cm long, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the monk chameleon live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the monk chameleon for 1 country: Yemen. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

What kind of animal is the monk chameleon?

The monk chameleon (Chamaeleo monachus) belongs to the family Chamaeleonidae in the order Squamata.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Monk chameleon (Chamaeleo monachus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/monk-chameleon

MLA

“Monk chameleon (Chamaeleo monachus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/monk-chameleon.

BibTeX
@misc{monk_chameleon_2026,
  title = {Monk chameleon (Chamaeleo monachus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/monk-chameleon},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}