Anolis Cuvieri Adventure

For many of us, the academic summer has finished or is ending imminently. In Boston, the temperature is falling, and most in the Boston area woke up to temperatures in the low 50s this morning. At this point, I thought the timing would be good to revisit (with some nostalgia) the manner in which I started the summer – with a three week field trip to Puerto Rico.

In June I was in Puerto Rico primarily to help my first Ph.D. student, Kristin, start her thesis project on urban ecology and adaptation in anoles. The focal species of Kristin’s research is the ubiquitous Anolis cristatellus, which, as anyone who has visited Puerto Rico will know, is equally common (if not more abundant) in heavily urbanized habitats as it is in natural forests. One species that is not found in urban areas, and, in fact, is fairly difficult to find in most habitats, is the Puerto Rican crown giant anole, Anolis cuvieri. We were lucky enough to see a few of these anyway, including one that I happen upon entirely by accident on the 60 acre finca where we stayed in a rental cottage for a little more than a week.

At night I was searching for invasive boa constrictors which are known from this part of the island, so as dusk approached I thought I’d try and take some photos of the sunset over the island’s western coast. Always on the lookout for A. cuvieri, I nonetheless somehow missed this individual in this pre-dusk shot (highlighted here by the red arrow). A perfect “find the anole” photo, but one in which I had initially “missed the anole” in spite of seeing it in person!

I initially missed this Puerto Rican crown giant, perched 20+ feet up a palm tree.

When I did spot him, he was far too high to capture with my meager 14 foot noose pole, so we just kept an eye on him. As the sun continued to set he did something interesting – he started to descend the trunk.

Not being able to resist making an attempt, I climbed the steep cliff to the base of the tree. The following action sequence resulted:

Action sequence as I captured the animal after he decided to come into noosing range.

(Note in panel 6 the additional use of Cabelas noose poles as a stabilizer for ascending!)

In hand, it was evident that this individual was an old male that had surely fought many a territorial battle – battered as he was with a funky eye and a prominent mid-dewlap hole:

Anolis cuvieri in hand.

After some inspection and more photographs, we released him back to his tree. Here, he scampered off – slightly disoriented, no doubt, but unharmed:

What a spectacular anole, and always a treat to encounter – but watch out for the bite!

Of course, as has been noted in previous posts to this blog, one should never capture or remove anoles from the wild without permits from the appropriate regulatory authority.