Yes, the brown (aka, festive) anole is at it again. Now it’s turned up on the island of Bioko in the Gulf of Guinea. As Malanza et al. report in Herpetological Notes, this is the second introduction of the species to Africa, the first occurring in Angola.
Professor of Biology and Director of the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in Saint Louis. I've spent my entire professional career studying anoles and have discovered that the more I learn about anoles, the more I realize I don't know.
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Armando F Pou
I wonder if the Anolis sagrei were introduced into Angola during the 70s by Cubans sent there to fight. Perhaps in cargo.
Richard Wallach
Good thought. I can see them sitting on a palm tree watching the Battle of the Bridge and commenting about how they got there just in time for the entertainment.
Richard Wallach
Considering that I saw one in Alcala, Spain a few years ago (as I reported here at the time), I’m not surprised they’ve made it to Africa.
Meanwhile, irony of ironies, they seem to have been extirpated from wide areas of southeastern Miami-Dade County where I live by the Peterson’s rock agamas. So, in fact, have the curly tails. It’s gotten to be like some odd agamid daisyworld down here.
Susanne Renner
Was the Bioko population founded by Angolese individuals? It’s only 930 miles.
Jonathan Losos
I don’t think the paper addresses this point.