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Distribution and habitat

Chameleons primarily live in the mainland of sub-Saharan Africa and on the island of Madagascar, although a few species live in northern Africa, southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta), the Middle East, southeast Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, and several smaller islands in the western Indian Ocean. Introduced, non-native populations are found in Hawaii and Florida.

Chameleons are found only in tropical and subtropical regions and inhabit all kinds of lowland and mountain forests, woodlands, shrublands, savannas, and sometimes deserts, but each species tends to be a restricted to only one of a few different habitat types. The typical chameleons from the subfamily Chamaeleoninae are arboreal, usually living in trees or bushes, although a few (notably the Namaqua chameleon) are partially or largely terrestrial. The genus Brookesia, which comprises the majority of the species in the subfamily Brookesiinae, live low in vegetation or on the ground among leaf litter. Many chameleon species have small distributions and are considered threatened. Declining chameleon numbers are mostly due to habitat loss.