I’ve now read the book in which the Toda et al. paper (see previous post) is published. There are several other chapters that discuss the hypothesis that introduced A. carolinensis are responsible for the decline and even extinction of endemic insects on these islands. For example, one chapter notes that dragonflies have decreased greatly and that green anoles can eat two dragonflies a day. Also, note the green anole eating a cicada on the cover! There is also an article that suggests that green anoles may serve as pollinators.
Author: Jonathan Losos Page 130 of 133
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.
Anole species have been introduced to many places throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere (for example, Florida and Costa Rica), but relatively little research has examined the ecological impact of these invaders. Anolis carolinensis has been in the Ogasawara Islands of Japan for several decades, where it attains high population densities and has been blamed for local declines and even extinctions of native insects. It also is thought to negatively affect an endemic skink. Toda et al. report efforts to eliminate the green anole from port areas, so as to prevent them from stowing away and invading additional islands, and to reduce their population densities in other areas. They have found the most effective techniques to be putting out glue-traps designed for cockroaches (pictured here), which reduced anole densities by as much as 50% in some areas, and building Teflon-sided fences that anoles cannot climb. Efforts are continuing to eradicate these anoles and other invasive species on these islands. This paper also briefly reports a nice demographic study of the lizards, finding that some individuals could live longer than four years.
What's that I hear? Photo by Melissa Losos
We think of anoles as visually oriented animals, but they can hear as well. Very little work has investigated their hearing ability, much less how they respond to aural phenomena. In a recent study, Huang et al. reported that anoles alter their behavior depending on what they hear. In particular, they show that A. cristatellus in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, appear to display less after hearing the call of a predatory bird, a kestrel, compared to their response to a non-threatening granivore, the bananaquit. They also report that simulated ecotourists playing the sound of a camera shutter clicking lead to a decrease in display rate compared to controls or the faux tourists taking flash photos. They interpret this finding as indicating that the sound of SLR cameras clicking, but not their flashes, are interpreted as a threat by the anoles. These results are interesting, but cry out for more thorough study, especially given that data were collected by approaching lizards, watching them for 1-2 minutes, presenting the stimulus, and then recording behavior for another minute and comparing rates of behavior from before and after. Moreover, differences in behavior among treatments were only detected in the final 15 seconds of the post-stimulus observation period, where no differences were detected in the first 45 seconds. Bottom line: it would be very interesting to investigate the role of hearing in anole behavior, and this study provides an inkling that there may be interesting work to be done.
Ever wonder what would happen if you searched “Anolis.” Well, I did. Here’s what you get (and if you do it again, you’ll get slightly different results depending on which pages you look at):
The first and second hits are for the Wikipedia pages on anoles.
The 3rd and 8th hits are for Anolis: leading LED lighting solutions, with a chameleon as a logo. One of their products claims these advantages, appropriate for their name: Awesome power, Absolutely silent, Perfect color mixing. Anolis Lighting is a division of Robe Lighting, with offices in Czech Republic, UK, US, and Australia. The website provides no indication where the name comes from.
Check out the work of origami maestro Bernie Peyton! Bernie, a Berkeley trained Ph.D. and expert on Andean sun bears, is also world renowned for his origami. He combines his zoological acumen with his artistic sense, making many origami animals, some of which you can see here (although none, of course, match the splendor of his anoles). Bernie currently has a show at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut until February 28.
Photos courtesy Bernie Peyton.
Get ‘em while supplies last! Don’t miss another second of this page-turning thriller! If you order from Amazon, shipping’s free.
Undecided? Check out the reviews here.
Since Darwin’s time, biologists have believed that evolution occurs at a very slow, glacial scale. A corollary of this belief is that ecologists need not consider evolution as they work out the intricacies of ecosystem functioning—it occurs much too slowly to be a factor in understanding the day-to-day interactions among species and their environment. In recent years, however, it has become apparent that, when natural selection is strong, evolutionary change can occur very quickly. This raises the possibility that ecological interactions can lead to rapid evolutionary change, which could then quickly have ecological effects. For example, several recent studies have shown that fish species will evolve adaptively in response to competitive and predatory interactions, and that these evolutionary changes affect the ecosystem, changing rates of primary production, decomposition and altering the biotic and abiotic composition of the ecosystem. The study of “eco-evolutionary dynamics” is taking off and was recently reviewed by Tom Schoener in Science. In that review, Schoener referred to ongoing research on Anolis sagrei in the Bahamas as an example of how ecological interactions could lead to evolutionary change that would then feedback and alter ecosystem properties (see above).
José Ernesto Pérez Villota, a Colombian student, is looking for information on the population structure of A. aequatorialis, or of any other Colombian anole. He is particularly interested if some populations have sex ratios deviating from 1:1. If you have any such information, contact him at jeperezv@gmail.com.
On sale at a website near you
Recently while trolling the internet looking for Anolis grahami to purchase for a research project, I came upon a website offering “wild collected” A. occultus, the Puerto Rican twig anole, and Cuban “false chameleons,” the anoles in the Chamaeleolis clade. Having worked very hard to get collecting and export permits from the Puerto Rican and Cuban officials, I am extremely dubious that such animals could be legally captured and exported for commercial purposes . Although in some cases commercial export permits can be easier to obtain than research permits, I strongly doubt that this is the case in Puerto Rico and Cuba.
I mentioned this to a friend, who pointed me to another website that had a host of difficult-to-obtain anoles for sale, including the Cuban Crown-Giant anole, A. smallwoodi. All the lizards on this website were captive bred. Almost surely, their ancestors were illegally exported from their countries of origin, but apparently the offspring of such animals can be legally bought and sold, which would seem to be a big loophole in wildlife laws. On the other hand, because Australia does not allow export of reptiles for commercial purposes, all of the bearded dragons in the pet trade would be illegal if this were the case.
In any case, I am bemused, delighted, and concerned by this trade in illicit anoles and their apparently licit offspring. Bemused because we jump through lots of hoops to get the necessary permits, whereas others apparently take a different tack. Delighted because apparently there is a big group of anole lovers out there, keeping and breeding these wonderful animals. And, finally, concerned, both because there’s always the threat that too much collecting could jeopardize rare anole species (although I know of no such cases, it’s certainly possible for some rare species), but also because such illegal trade can cause wildlife officials to clamp down on all exporting of lizards, even for valid scientific research. I experienced this myself years ago, when wildlife officials on St. Lucia were very cold and unfriendly and gave us great difficulty. We learned later that a year before, collectors masquerading as scientists, with faked credentials, had gotten permits to export 20 boas, only to sell them. Somehow, the St. Lucians found out, and we paid the consequence.
Imagine my surprise and delight upon entering the Winkleman Gallery last weekend in downtown New York and immediately setting eyes on this piece of art. The Anola Star is part of a new show, Binocular, by Leslie Thornton. Although this work is the only anole, and the only lizard, in the show, there are several images of snakes, as well as other animals. But the exhibition got even better! I walked into a darkened room to discover that the images also had video counterparts. Here’s a snippet of the anole piece, which ran for approximately four minutes and then repeated. Needless to say, this is my kind of art! The show only runs through Saturday, so run, don’t walk, straight downtown to see it before it closes. You can read more about the show and Thornton here, and you can see a review in the New York Times here.