Ok, not actually breaking news–occurred almost eight years ago, but somehow word never reached Anole Annals. People magazine tells the story:
Nearly three years after taking over The Late Show from David Letterman, Stephen Colbert finally welcomed the first animal expert back on the CBS program, Friday. But… he might regret that decision.
The 53-year-old talk show host sat down with Nathaniel “Coyote” Peterson, the animal expert and adventurer known for his popular YouTube show Brave Wilderness — for which he travels the globe letting animals and insects bite and sting him.
It was only fitting, then, that Peterson brought an animal along to bite Colbert. “I was told you wanted to enter the bite zone,” Peterson said, before pulling out the green anole lizard. “What we have here is…arguably one of the most painful lizards in the world. They can be found all throughout Florida and maybe even here in New York because they often times escape as people’s pets.”
He then asked Colbert, “If you’re brave enough, and I know you are, you’re actually going to be bitten by one of these anoles.”
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Colbert was game, though he was nervous. “I wanted to do something that wasn’t very painful,” he said. “Lizards don’t really bother me but is it going to hurt?”
“That’s yet to be determined,” Peterson said. “How are you going to endure the pain. It’s all on you. You have to mentally prepare yourself. When I do this and I’m bit and stung by things, I kind of walk and pace behind the cameras before I actually go through with it.”
The former Colbert Report host didn’t do that. Instead, he stayed seated — looking directly into the camera before saying, “I’m Stephen Colbert and I’m about to enter the bite zone with the green anole.”
That’s when Peterson put the lizard up to Colbert’s ear — because “the ear is the best place to be bit by this thing, then it just kind of hangs there like an earring,” according to Peterson.
As for the bite, Colbert handled it well. “Well done. Well done,” Peterson said.
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jacque
Children in Florida grew up playing with green anoles in the 50’s,60’s and 70’s. They were docile, even friendly, and beloved by all. We have very few left because of the Cuban brown invasion. As of 2 years ago, I was catching house flies to hand-feed one at my front door in Titusville ……… he is gone.
AsaBee
As kids we use to get the to bite out ear lobs also. Living ear rings we call them generally speaking, they would hold on for a long time.
Denese S Wong
I live in northwest Florida (southern Okaloosa County) and I actually did get painfully bitten by a green anole once! They would get into my house sometimes, and I would scoop them up and take them outside to release them. No problem, usually, but one time one clamped down on the tender bit of skin between two of my fingers. It really hurt! I was outside when it happened, and I was yelling “No! No! Let me go! If any of my neighbors saw or heard me, I’m sure they thought I was crazy because I doubt they could have seen the anole. I probably just appeared to be a crazy lady being attacked by my imagination! lol