Here's an interesting take. Sorry for the length.
In some reptiles, I'm sure gentics is a major factor. I have seen such
inconsistency in behavior from generation to generation, in chameleons,
that I belive there to be a bit more to it.
My first veiled chameleons were WC adults. Very friendly. All of the
breeders I associated with, including me, bred veileds, and believed, in
good faith, that veileds were friendlier than other chameleons - at least
to their keepers. Panthers on the other hand - evil incarnate. All of our
veileds were sweet, calm, and gentle. They were all WC.
After we got the F1's growing up, we noticed somethign odd. they
were evil little buggers. All of them. I even worked with my hold
backs, nearly every day. They were handaleable, but they'd hat eyou
while you held them. My othe rmale woudl never gape, flare up at me,
or hiss. Only time he did that was when he got a shot of calcium from a
vet ( he had slight MBD when I got him).
Over the last several years, I began experimenting with them. I've
found that veileds that are "socialized" when young, are sweethearts. If
they are housed in small groups, and allowed to settle territorial
disputes, learn what the various threat and display colorations mean,
and generally interact with adults and young, they are much friendlier.
Males, in particular, benifit from such exposure. A young male that
attempts to mount a larger, non-receptive female will learn (quickly) that
the black lizard, with blue and yellow squiggles and a gaping mouth is
NOT something you get too close to. They will learn to approach
females slowly, and to engage in courtship behavior more readily.
There are breeders that claim calyptratus have no courtship ritual - they
just grab females and mate, receptive or not.
This is unnatural behavior, brought upon by the way the animals are
housed. In the wild, they are able to interact, socialize and learn from
each other - who's dominant, color signals, etc. They learn their
boundaries and territories. They have complex social behavior, but the
scope of their territories makes reproducing it in captivity impossible for
the average keeper. So, we house them in individual cages, isolated
from even visual contact. The result is males that have all the instincts to
mate and fight, but none of the "hard knocks" that come with growing
up in "the real world" - we've all got sociopathic chameleons.
They do not know how to act amongst others, especially the females.
Instead of courting them, and working hard to impress them, they
forcibly mate - bypassing the puffing up, color changing, tail curling,
head jerking... I've seen males on top of females even before their
courtship colors have finished changing! They'll head butt their heads
out of the way and cause severe damage.
Here's an example:
One of my old F1's that was particularly nasty, was housed in a large
outdoor screen cage. It was 12'x8'x8'. I put 2 females in with him. At
first, he ran them into the ground - literally, I found them wedged in the
rocks and plants on the ground. After a few days, he learned to be
nicer. He still attempted to court them every once in a while - but he
always kept his distance, and stayed near the upper branches. They
stayed near the bottom. When they were rceptive, they moved up to
him, and stayed with him until they had to lay eggs. He learned to
respect their gravid coloration, and they were no longer threatened by
him. They kept the warnign colors, but slept, basked and moved with
im, staying less than a foot away most of the time.
After this experience, the male was much nicer to me. not quite as
friendly as his father, but much better than before.
The interesting thing is, now, people think of panthers as friendly. The
CB pardalis are sweet. Weird.
