Taronga Zoo has lizards so tiny you'll lose your mind

What's 5cm long, has googly eyes and will be a different colour next year? These guys!

Grab your magnifying glass and say hi to the newest residents of Sydney's Taronga Zoo – recently-hatched tiny baby chameleons.

The veiled chameleons, native to the Arabian Peninsula, are being kept in a special temperature-controlled environment until they're big and strong.

"Veiled chameleons are a visually amazing species that we’re fortunate to have at Taronga. While they’re not endangered, they do play an important educational role in helping us to get people excited about reptiles and reptile conservation,” reptile keeper Michael McFadden said in a statement.

The cute little suckers are green for the moment, but as they mature they'll develop the ability to change colour through the spectrum from pale yellow to black.

They'll do this when they're stressed, to find a mate, when they're hot or in a strange mood – basically, all the times human beings would drink alcohol.

"However, they don’t change colour to match a particular background like you see in cartoons,” said McFadden.

As well as this colour-changing ability, the chameleons can also move each eye independently, have a tongue longer than their whole body, and grip branches and twigs with their toes, two of which point forward and two backward.

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