A. maynardi pretending to be drowned
This A. maynardi comes fairly often to our bird bath in Little Cayman to drink, crawling down into the clear plastic tub and sunbathing on the rocks. After I took his picture (below) and went for a second shot, he got spooked and dove into the water, swam vigorously with much wiggling, and then started to play dead. He drifted at a very odd angle, not moving, tail end sinking slowly until only the tip of his elegant nose was exposed. When my husband tried to “save” him, he wiggled & swam away until he made contact with my husband’s hand, and then dove into a nearby pot plant. Has anyone else seen an anole playing possum?
I'm a semi-retired paleoanthropologist with a particular interest in ecology and past ecosystems.Since I now spend several months a year on Little Cayman, which boasts the rare Anolis maynardi, I have gotten very interested in anoles and conservation. I remain an amateur but as there is so little known about A. maynardi I hope the observations my husband and I make will fill in a few gaps.I am also a science writer and biographer, so if you google me or look me up on amazon, all "those people" are really just me, from the scientific books like THE ANIMAL CONNECTION to FEMME FATALE (a biography of Mata Hari).
Latest posts by Pat Shipman (see all)
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Peter Mudde
Anoles playing Possum? In a way, yes. I have caught Anolis oxylophus in Costa Rica (in the outskirts of Guapiles) and then one froze stiff as if it tried to mimick a piece of wood. I could hold the anole by the base of it’s tail and he kept his body as stiff as possible.