Back when this was originally posted in 2012, some viewers claimed to have seen a sixth anole. I can’t find it, but maybe you can!
Category: All Posts Page 28 of 149
Photo by Humberto Bahena Basave
Hey guys! As an international student and considering what’s happened recently, it’s been tough. But having happy things is really important right now and anoles are exceedingly wonderful lizards, I’m sure we all agree here. So I’m still going to do #DidYouAnole this week because I love doing it.
And we are continuing with the A. carolinensis series.
There are 13 species in this proposed group of anoles and they are all morphologically similar, so we’ve got a few more pointy headed anoles coming up. This week is Anolis allisoni, one of my favourites and it’s because of the blue mostly if I’m being completely honest. Look at it! Most of them look like they’ve been dipped in paint!
(Please don’t dip lizards in paint!)
Photo by Christopher Hampson
Anolis allisoni, also called Allison’s anole or the Blue-Headed anole, is found in Cuba where all anoles in this series are thought to originate from. It’s also found on the Bay Islands and Cayos Cochinos (Honduras), and Half Moon Caye (Belize). And guess where else they’ve been spotted now. I feel like I actually will go to Florida when the world is OK because it seems like 300 of the 436 recognised anole species live there now.
Anolis allisoni is capable of changing from green and blue to brown like A. carolinensis, and pretty quickly too. Only the males have this blue colouring and pink dewlaps, and the amount of blue varies by individual, as well as by population it seems, with those in Honduras having less blue than other locations. Like A. carolinensis, the females have smaller, more proportional heads, but they don’t have the white dorsal stripe that Green anole females tend to. Males typically have an SVL (snout-to-vent length) of 10cm, while the females are about 7-8cm.
Look at that little bit of pale blue on this A. allisoni compared to the intense blue on the first! (Photo by Christian Grenier)
And then this individual has his blue like racing stripes! (Photo by Shea Lambert)
Most female anoles lay their eggs in the dirt, and West Indian anoles follow a reproductive cycle where a period of inactivity aligns just about with colder months (October – February). Anolis allisoni however is one of the six species in Cuba that we know of to have communal nests, where all the females lay their eggs together! How cool is that!
They are also really good at pretending to be grass apparently. Check this older post and see how many you can find. I think I found the 5 Dr. Losos says there should be. For those of you that follow #FindThatLizard, I know Earyn didn’t have a challenge on this Wednesday, so maybe this can help!
Thanks for reading!
Photo by Víctor Vásquez-Cruz
Read all about it in this new paper, available online: Víctor Vásquez-Cruz. 2020. New prey records for the Atlantic Central American Milksnake Lampropeltis polyzona (Serpentes: Colubridae). Phyllomedusa 19(1):107–111.
The hatchling Brown Anole as discovered.
Animals spanning a wide taxonomic breadth often serendipitously appear in households and greenhouses after hitching rides in potted plants being transported (e.g., Perry et al., 2006). In Anolis lizards, this pattern is well-documented, especially in the notoriously successful invader, the Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei). Indeed, A. sagrei populations have been established outside of their native range widely across the globe, from Taiwan (Norval et al., 2002) to Bermuda (Stroud et al., 2017) to Angola (Ceríaco and Bauer, 2020).
The hatchling after plucked out of the pot!
In the northeastern United States, Anolis encounters are less common, but are occasionally reported. For example, most recently in January, a Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) was reported from Cape Cod. On Monday, I was alerted to a hatchling Anolis sagrei in Anne Arundel County, Maryland that took a ride home from a Lowe’s in a mother-in-law’s tongue (Dracaena trifasciata). Where this individual originated from is unknown, but as Graham Reynolds (University of North Carolina Asheville) previously writes, do lizards in potted plants constitute range extensions? Echoing the sentiment of Graham, established populations in the states that ring the Gulf of Mexico are presumably assisting in leapfrogging expansions of anoles throughout the United States, further propelling the Brown Anole invasion. Where will A. sagrei turn up next?
Ceríaco, L. and Bauer, A. 2020. Geographic Distribution: Anolis sagrei (Brown Anole) in Angola, Africa. Herpetological Review. 51. 271.
Norval, G., Mao, J. J., Chu, H. P., and Chen, L. C. 2002. A new record of an introduced species, the brown anole (Anolis sagrei) (Duméril & Bibron, 1837), in Taiwan. Zoological Studies, 41(3), 332–335
Perry, G., Powell, R., & Watson, H. 2006. Keeping invasive species off Guana Island, British Virgin Islands. Iguana: Conservation Natural History, and Husbandry of Reptiles, 13, 273-277.
Stroud, J. T., Giery, S. T., and Outerbridge, M. E. 2017. Establishment of Anolis sagrei on Bermuda represents a novel ecological threat to Critically Endangered Bermuda skinks (Plestiodon longirostris). Biological Invasions, 19(6), 1723-1731.
Photo by Janson Jones
Hey there!
Welcome to #DidYouAnole on Anole Annals for the first time!
I talk about a new anole every week on Twitter (with really good GIFs) and now here too!
This week’s #DidYouAnole is in collaboration with #GuessThatSkull, so if you want a 3D look at an A. carolinensis skull, check it out!
Last week I talked about Anolis porcatus and that A. carolinensis wasn’t a distinct species, but that’s not its fault and it’s still worthwhile to talk about. Since A. carolinensis was described first, that would mean A. porcatus should become carolinensis. So they’re all A. carolinensis!
The American Green Anole or simply, the Green Anole, gets its name from its colour. As most of us know it’s usually green, but it can change to brown, olive shades, grey and can even be blue!
Green anoles display sexual dimorphism, which is when animals have different features based on their sex. Like peacocks and peahens! Females tend to be smaller and have more proportional heads, have a white stripe down their backs and may have a dewlap that is much smaller than a male’s.
(Juvenile males may also have this dorsal stripe though!)
Photo by Vicki DeLoach
A lot of people have remarked that their native populations of the Green anole have been disappearing due to the introduction of the Brown anole. While it is entirely possible that its population can be affected by A.sagrei, it’s also very likely that these anoles are just partitioning by habitat. That means that Green anoles (trunk-crown ecomorphs) used to roam freely, but now with another anole around, they’ve moved and further adapted to the trees and the Brown anoles (trunk-ground) stayed on the ground where they prefer and are very visible.
Brown anoles are totally jerks though.
Green anoles have a range of dewlap colours. Most commonly bright red to pink, but some populations in southwestern FL have grey dewlaps and are a subspecies, A. c. seminolus, and some in HI have lilac dewlaps. This has been noted a few times by observers and authors on Anole Annals.
Speaking of which, I’m super excited/scared to bring this to you here on Anole Annals. I love this website. I’ve been in articles on here before and now I get to share my anole fan-girling on here myself!
And speaking of the dewlap colours! I draw anole stickers and my carolinensis sticker is now available in grey, and lilac. And there’s a new anole friend waiting there for you too!
Thanks for reading!!
Bananaquit feeding from a cactus fruit opened by a brown-throated parakeet on the island of Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles.
Call for contributors to a Caribbean-wide investigation of psittacine-vertebrate commensal relationships!
We are seeking ecologists who have observed vertebrates (here Anoles) feeding on items (fruits, cacti and other stem-sap, or flowers) that some wild native Caribbean psittacine (Macaw, Parrot, or Parakeet) has opened and/or discarded. By opening and/or discarding food items, some psittacines may routinely provide access to resources that might otherwise be out of reach or at least more costly to acquire.
Bananaquit feeding from a parrot-opened orange on the island of Dominica, eastern Caribbean.
We anticipate that the majority of our contributions will be anecdotal and opportunistic field observations. Our deadline to collect all submitted observations is December 1, 2020. All contributors in this project will be listed as co-authors on a manuscript tentatively titled: Caribbean psittacines as indirect controllers of ecosystem dynamics through commensal feeding associations. Here is a template that outlines the types of information that we are hoping to receive from contributors.
Above and to the left are two photos, as examples, of how psittacines provide opportunities for birds to find food (sugary juice, pulp, and even insects) by opening fruit in both an agro-ecosystem and a natural dry forest system.
Please contact Leo Douglas at lrd2107@columbia.edu or leo.douglas@nyu.edu with any questions or for further information. Looking forward to hearing from you!
A recent study published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology conducted by Levi Storks and Manuel Leal (University of Missouri) investigates problem-solving abilities in the Anolis sagrei of Great Abaco.
Abstract:
Despite evidence that organisms are more likely to exhibit their full range of cognitive abilities under conditions found in nature, studies evaluating cognition under such conditions remain rare, particularly in vertebrate species. Here, we conducted an experiment to evaluate problem-solving and motor self-regulation in free-living arboreal lizards, Anolis sagrei, under natural conditions. We presented lizards with a novel detour problem which challenged individuals to circumvent a transparent barrier in order to obtain a food reward. Individuals varied in their ability to solve the detour problem. Furthermore, those that solved the problem were able to improve their performance across trials by modifying the natural response of attempting to strike the reward through the transparent barrier, providing evidence of motor self-regulation. Solving the problem required individuals to modify their typical foraging behavior, as approaching the prey in a single burst of movement that culminated with an attack was an unsuccessful strategy. Contrary to expectations, our findings provide evidence of motor self-regulation in a visually oriented, sit-and-wait predator under natural conditions, suggesting motor self-regulation is not limited by foraging strategy. Our results also underscore the need to evaluate the cognitive abilities of free-living organisms in the wild, particularly for taxa that perform poorly under laboratory conditions.
You can read the full paper here: Storks, L., and Leal, M. 2020. Thinking outside the box: problem-solving in free-living lizards. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 74, 75.
Nancy Greig, Director of the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, tells the story:
Freddie is my dog, a 27 lb mixed breed, and this photo was taken in my back yard. Freddie’s quite the little hunter – fascinated by cockroaches at night and Anolis sagrei by day. The latter have become extremely abundant here in Houston in the last decade or so, out-competing/displacing the native green anole. There are dozens (hundreds?) in my yard. They tend to stay on or near the ground, unlike the green anole, which seems to prefer (especially now) to be higher up in the vegetation (so not of interest to Freddie, fortunately). Male A. sagrei can get quite large and as you can see here, pretty feisty! The standoff lasted several minutes, and was repeated several times. But I’m afraid Freddie got the better of the plucky fellow in the end.
Anole biologist Chelsea Connor (Photo courtesy of Chelsea Connor)
Lizard biologist Earyn McGee (Photo courtesy of Earyn McGee)
Right now, the United States is wrestling with systemic racism at many levels in our society. And while one may wish to think nature and science stand outside of this issue, this is not the case. Nature-related jobs and hobbies, which many of us AA readers enjoy, are often not safe spaces for Black people for many reasons—we saw a very striking example of this a few weeks ago in Central Park in New York City. So last week, largely in response to that event, a team of Black scientists presented the world with Black Birders Week, a week of social media and online events to showcase the Black naturalist community and share their experiences with Black and non-Black nature lovers alike. And while the event was focused on birding, two of the organizers behind this event are lizard biologists: Chelsea Connor and Earyn McGee! I’d like to highlight these two awesome herpetologists and their efforts in such a great week of outreach and community-building.
Anole biologist Chelsea Connor (Photo courtesy of Chelsea Connor)
Chelsea Connor, one of the co-founders of Black Birders Week, is currently a student at Midwestern State University. She studies the interactions between two anoles in her home country of Dominica, the endemic A. oculatus and the invasive A. cristatellus (some of her research was recently covered on AA). She’s active on Twitter, where she posts fun facts about her study animals and shares her experience as a Black woman in herpetology – follow her at @chelseaherps. She also makes wonderful anole-themed art–check it out and buy stickers here!
Earyn McGee is a PhD candidate at the University of Arizona, where she studies the effects of stream drying on lizard communities. She is also a science communicator, educating the public about lizards and showing that Black women belong in wildlife science. She has run a weekly social media #FindThatLizard challenge for several years, introducing the fun of herpetology to many new fans (you can follow her on Twitter @Afro_Herper to play, and support this effort on her Patreon). She also has a new YouTube channel!
Lizard biologist Earyn McGee (Photo courtesy of Earyn McGee)
If you missed the #BlackBirdersWeek event, I encourage you to look it up on social media and online – it’s received lots of press coverage! To get you started, I’m pasting a few articles highlighting Earyn’s and Chelsea’s involvement in Black Birders Week below. And I encourage us all to use this moment to reflect on how we can make our nature-loving communities more welcoming and safe for our fellow naturalists.
- Audubon: ‘Black Birders Week’ Promotes Diversity and Takes on Racism in the Outdoors
- NPR Shortwave: #BlackBirdersWeek Seeks To Make The Great Outdoors Open To All
- VOA News: Black Birdwatchers Face Racism Too
- Smithsonian Conservation Commons: #BlackBirdersWeek: Celebrating and Encouraging Diversity in Conservation