Selene – lunchtime , going for a darkling beetle
Hi All,
I’d like to introduce Selene, a Knight Anole (Anolis equestris), currently residing with me in my home, since July of 2015. I received her and another equestris as already fully grown lizards that summer. The supplier is believes them to have been “6 months to a year” at that time. The other equestris passed during 2017.
Current Specs (Aug 2022):
Length – Snout to Vent – 13cm
Length of Tail – 20cm
Weight – 74g
Until 2019, I had kept Selene in a vertical glass box (she doesn’t like the word “cage”). Since then, she has lived “free range” in and around a window. We kept adding plants and tree limbs until it was necessary to convert the entire space into a habitat.
Selene is currently living in the habitat we constructed for her above a window (top shot in the pic). She seems very happy there and makes no attempt to leave the space. She has basically free feeding as we keep the food bowl stocked daily. She gets water from daily misting and typically drinks right from the tip of the sprayer. I have handled her frequently in the past (2016-2018), but I limit touching to wiggling her tail or tickling her feet anymore since she’s so high up.
We’re under the impression Selene has “ecomorphed” into a purely captive lizard, totally dependent on us. We’re committed now; without realizing it, we did everything we could to modify this lizard’s behavior to our benefit.
We really enjoy Selene and she is definitely part of our home. We have no regrets, she is no burden, but its fair to wonder just how long this commitment is going to continue??
- Selene–a Long-Lived Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) - June 10, 2022
Rick Wallach
Here in Miami we have them all over our property. They seem to feed largely on Cuban treefrogs, house geckoes and nestling birds. As a rule we don’t disturb them. During rare cold snaps we occasonally find them cold-stupid on the ground so we take them inside, put them in a terrarium and let them thaw. We release them when the weather normalizes. We haven’t had one die yet so I would gather the species is slowly selecting out for cold hardiness down thisaway. BTW nobody calls them knight anoles around here; everyone refers to them as Cuban anoles.
TL Williams
Ok, on that note, Selene did survive the Valentine Freeze of 2021. We lost electricity right away, so we moved into the kitchen. We had her near the stove (in the box), next to a pot of simmering water (we had gas and water) for a few days. Once the water gave out, we had to relocate to another fully powered abode for a few more days. For a lizard, we’re thinking that was an adventure.
Right on, Cuban Anoles. Of course, Selene resides on Galveston Island (not Cuba but still an Island), so I’m thinking Anolis Galvesis…
Gianna Coppola
Hi!
Selene is such a beautiful looking lizard! My anole doesn’t like the word “cage” either. It’s impressive that she has lived this long. Do you ever worry about her leaving the window and ending up somewhere dangerous?
TL Williams
We do worry about her leaving the window area. We calm that concern by remembering she is arboreal (so won’t want to get down), and that she hasn’t made any attempts to leave (so far).
We did recently have another lizard in that area, a veiled chameleon (Petra). Petra was very active, constantly moving around the window. There were several times she did get down and we had to go on a lizard hunt, sometimes finding her rooms away.
Lucky for us, Selene did not learn that behavior.
Gianna Coppola
I’m glad that she stays in her window area! free ranging reptiles is such an interesting idea, especially since they have a lot of space to explore in the wild. That’s what I always worry about with my anole, Basil, she has a large tank with plenty of vines to jump on and her beloved coconut hide, but I wonder if she wants more. She is a brown anole from Petsmart, so I’m guessing she may have been wild once. It must have been worrisome when Petra escaped! At least veiled chameleons are pretty large.
TL Williams
Hi Team,
Just wanted to drop everyone a note regarding Selene. Another year has passed and Selene continues along, catching darkling beetles and munching on worms. We went on vacation for a couple of weeks this year, had a neighbor come by daily to feed/water her. She made it through without issue, as she has been doing, for going on 8 years now (in our home).
We still see her moving around in the habitat, from the very top near the ceiling to the lower shelf and most places in between. She does seem to frequent an area for a few weeks to a month, regularly returning there after an excursion, only to move to the other side of the area and hang out there for weeks on end. Its an Anole thing, we don’t understand.
We have a small shell that works well for holding a couple of worms so we can get them near her. The shell can be wedged into a couple of the vines and holds in place.
This has been working quite well over the past year, but might be making her a bit lazy as worms are typically within easy reach.
We do notice a feeding and activity change with the seasons, much more pronounced this year than in the past. Trying to make sure she was eating over the winter is what prompted us to start using the shell for feeding.
She is still shedding skin regularly, changes colors based on mood and has a moist-pink tongue. Her eyes are bright and alert to movement. Without taking her to the vet for an actual check-up, I’m thinking I have a healthy old-lady lizard.
TL Williams
Hello Everyone,
Another year has passed by, and Selene continues on as she has since 2015. She continues to eat worms or other insects and move about her arboreal area. She is still shedding (just a week ago) , and stays mostly green. There hasn’t been much change in her lizard-world and I’d guess she is a reflection of that. She has worms available at all times and gets water sprayed from a bottle multiple times a day.
We took a 3-week vacation this year, Apr/May, and had a friend lizard-sit for us. We prepared the old box for her, with some dirt, an Ivy plant and coconut substrate. Placed the box under her window to give it a couple of weeks to stabilize and Selene to see it. We put her in, transported to the friends house and set her up in front of a window facing the backyard. Selene seemed to take it in stride, no stress, no color change. Our friend has dogs, so the environment for Selene was quite different (not just being stuck in the box again). Our friend reported no issues to us, no stress for Selene while we were traveling.
Upon arriving home, we made the trip to get Selene and again, she showed no signs of stress for the trip. When we arrived home with her, I put the box under her space in the window and opened the top cover.
I watched her intently during this time. I will say, it truthfully looked to me like she recognized her window lair. It was only a moment before she climbed out of the box and up into her ‘home’.
We really expected her to show some signs of stress during the relocation (i.e. dogs barking), but it seems like she was aware of the changes and ‘rolled with it’. She even seemed to be ‘happy’ to be home.
Is that too much anthropomorphizing?
Another year goes by and Selene adds another candle to the cake.
Trev
What do you use for UVB lighting?
My CKA, Hailey, likes to get out of her cage but I only do it a few hours a day to ensure she has access to proper lighting. Would like to set something up where she can stay out most of the day without worry.
TL Williams
Good Morning Team,
Its a year later, and Selene continues along unabated. There were no trips this past year, so she didn’t have a move or strangers caring for her , although she did have to survive through a hurricane and its aftermath. Beryl hit the Island and left us without power for almost a week, during which time Selene maintained her presence calmly (it is possible she enjoyed the respite from A/C), while the humans kept the generator running.
Selene still appears to quite be happy in her habitat and moves around regularly to different locations. However we did finally have an occurrence of her briefly ‘escaping’. I came home from work on a random day a few months ago, and found Selene on my desk, out of her window. The first time she’s ever moved out of the window area in the now years she has lived there.
Since my desk is a couple of feet away and several feet below the window, we theorize she must have tried to jump towards the plants she sees on the valance, missed and landed on my desk.
I was surprised by finding her out of the window, and instinctively hoisted her back into her habitat before thinking to take any pics.
Selene is still surviving on superworms and darkling beetles, with the occasional cockroach when I can catch them. We did catch a couple of much smaller lizards from our garden in the past year, and released them both in the habitat. Neither was seen again after the first day.
Selene has picked up a new behavior, she’s started hiding behind a tree branch in the window habitat. She sits along the branch vertically, then wiggles a bit left-right depending on which side of the branch we are facing, to keep hidden behind it. We’re finding it hilarious, as if we can’t see/find her anyway.
Selene has been with us for 10 years now, suddenly she’s trying to hide behind this branch, like she learned a new trick.
TL Williams
Hello Team,
It is with great sadness I’m posting this update. Selene has passed away.
Her health deteriorated quickly over the past two months. She spent more and more time “sleeping” during the day. Her skin became a bit mottled, showing some sings of “age spots”. Her molting didn’t complete , leaving patches of old skin in places. Her activity dropped from moving daily to not moving for days. She quit eating over a week ago, but would still drink when sprayed. Her body is quite thin now, showing her bones. We used the heat lamp more over the past two weeks in the hopes she needed to stay warmer.
She rarely raised her head and spent most of her time resting along the plants/vines. Her color stayed good, mostly green. We did find her very dark brown a few times, but considered that as a stress reaction as she quickly returned to green once she noticed us.
We want to think we cared for her in a way that left her comfortable at the end.
That was quite a run for a lizard, +10 years with us, maybe another year prior to that. She lived with another Anole for a few years, and a veiled chameleon for another period. In a cage/box for years, then free range for the past few years. Spent time as a guest in other homes while her owners went on vacations. She survived hurricanes , ice storms and even living with a cat.
She spent her final days as a old-lady lizard, sleeping away the days resting comfortably on plants up high in the air , looking down to the world outside through her window.
Her little body with end up buried with our Plumeria. Each time it blooms moving forward we’ll think briefly of Selene.
Jonathan Losos
She had a great run! Thanks to you! I’m sorry for your loss. May she rest in peace.