Tag: A. maynardi

Male-Male Interactions in Anolis maynardi

The winner

Bright green male who won the fightAn instantaneous color change for the loser.

Two adult male A. maynardi were sitting on a flat tile deck about 6 inches apart with dewlaps exposed and head crests up. There was much head bobbing and they showed their bright yellow dewlaps by turning their heads sideways. Then fast wrestling occurred – It looked like they were using their mouths to bite each other — with the participants separating briefly before repeating the wrestling, during which they turned each other over and over. We (humans) may have precipitated the end of this bout by opening a door to get a camera, but one male ran off the deck down the vertical wall and the other stayed to watch. At this point a small female ran between the two towards the male nearest the deck. After 10 minutes the male that moved off first is sitting on a hand rail and has changed to his dark color, while the other male remains on a step still bright green.

Also: a brief note on nocturnal feeding. We had our first decent rain of the season on the 24th April and on coming home at about 8.30 pm, a large cosmopolitan gecko and a male A. maynardi were sharing the same wall and feeding on insects attracted to the outdoor lights.

Anolis in the birdbath

Playing possum part 2

Anolis in the birdbath

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?

 

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