Heart of the Nation: Somersby 2250

IS there any creature as wonderfully bizarre as the chameleon?

141111 TWAM Rango the Chameleon is in training at Australian Reptile Park on the Central Coast to be included in the reptile demonstration show where members of the public will be able to feed the reptile treats like crickets. Reptile keeper Kayleen Crawford demonstrates how to feed Rango. Picture: Toby Zerna Picture: Captioned As

IS there any creature as wonderfully bizarre as the chameleon?

Their eyes swivel independently of each other, so they can look forwards and backwards at the same time. They change colour according to their mood. And when stalking an insect they’ll sway gently from side to side, imitating a leaf in the wind, until they’re within range. Then, WHAP! Their ballistic tongue shoots out, grabs their prey and returns it to their mouth, all in the space of half a second.

“You wouldn’t want to be a cricket,” laughs Kayleen Crawford, pictured feeding Rango the veiled chameleon. In the wild, Rango would live a solitary life in a tree on the Arabian peninsula; but at the Australian Reptile Park, he’s a star attraction. Not that he likes too much attention. He’ll signal his anger by turning grey if anyone touches him. Crawford, 25, loves that singular spirit in chameleons. “They’re awesome little creatures,” she says.

Growing up on NSW’s Central Coast, Crawford was inspired from an early age by David Attenborough. She had a soft spot for reptiles, and begged her mother for a pet snake — “but mum was always, ‘No. Definitely not’. She was terrified of them.” By her early 20s, Crawford was making sandwiches at Subway and wondering what to do with her life; then she began volunteering at the reptile park, and knew she’d found the answer. Now a full-time reptile and spider keeper, part of her job entails milking funnel-web spiders for the national anti-venom program. (How? By prodding them — then, when they rear up, slipping tiny pumps onto their dripping fangs. It’s not a job for the faint-hearted.)

And these days, having left home, she’s got herself that pet snake — a jungle python named Slinky. Her mother’s changed her tune, too. “Mum absolutely loves Slinky,” she says. “And that’s even after he’s bitten her a couple of times.”