so they do bite

L. has a story about boomslangs. Her brother-in-law was bitten one Christmas. He was walking under a tree with a chameleon balanced on his forearm. It's an easy thing to do: adults and kids alike are fascinated by a chameleon's slow movements. What the brother-in-law didn't realise was that on a low-lying branch a boomslang had spotted its prey. It reached down, missed and bit the man instead. "Fortunately it was a dry bite," L. says. "But it caused a bit of stress for a short while."