Chameleon Love: Furcifer oustaleti

When female chameleons become receptive, they allow males to approach. The male aligns his cloaca with that of the female and performs copulation. During this process, the male's hemipenes become engorged with lymph, allowing them to enter the female's cloaca. The male then exhibits rhythmic movements at the base of his tail, directing sperm from his body cavity, where the testes are located, through the sulcus spermaticus and into the cloaca of the female. The sperm then travels through the female's reproductive tract to the oviducts, allowing for fertilization of the eggs in the ovaries, which contain ready follicles. After several weeks of gestation, the female then releases the eggs; in the case of most chameleons, and in some montane species, after several months of gestation, the young are born in a transparent sac, which is expelled upon leaving the cloaca or shortly after.