Category: Natural History Observations Page 24 of 34

Reader Louise Butler from the Big Island writes: “I am attaching two photos. One is a battle royale on the outerside of my kitchen window. Two anole-like dudes (?) duking it out, each grasping the other’s jaw. They remained this way, occasionally changing position but never letting go, for several minutes. Most amazing was that my indoor anole hardly noticed them and he was on the inside of the very same screen! Look at the difference in size.

I’ve never before, or since seen Anolis this big.

The second photo depicts the gold-dust day gecko’s most favored way of proliferation. They love the car. I’ve seen several emerging from the innards of my neighbor’s car after one of his trips to Kona from our location on the eastern tip of the Big Island.”

So, readers, what do you think about the size of those Hawaiians? And let’s not forget that geckos are not the only ones that use that means of transportation.

During our recent visit to Veragua, a few of the hardier participants decided to forego ziplining in favor of a hike. While traipsing through a beautiful stream, we encountered several A. oxylophus, one of the so-called aquatic anoles. Despite the moniker, aquatic anoles do not spend most of their time in the water. Rather, they perch on vegetation or rocks along stream edges, close to or above the water. While at least one species of aquatic anole, A. vermiculatus, actively hunts for aquatic prey, the diets of most aquatic species, including A. oxylophus, comprise nonaquatic invertebrates. All aquatic anoles, however, use the water for escape: when threatened by a predator, aquatic anoles dive into the water and either flee, by swimming or running across the water to the opposite bank, or submerge underwater until the threat goes away. Previous reports suggest that A. oxylophus uses the latter two strategies.

How long did this strapping A. oxylophus stay underwater? Photo courtesy of Alexis Harrison.

Read More

Anolis chloris. Photo by Luke Mahler

A recent post extolled the size of the dewlap of the Hispaniolan A. christophei, but a number of readers, myself included, suggested that to find a truly humongous dewlap, you need to go to the mainland. And all one needs to do is look at the wondrous A. chloris pictured above to see that that is true. I challenge any Anole Annals reader to show me a photo of a Caribbean anole strutting his stuff so gynormously.

Still don’t believe me? Here are a few more.

Left to right, top row: unidentified Central American anole (ID, anyone?) from http://rhamphotheca.tumblr.com/post/1322893581/male-anolis-lizard-displaying-dewlap; A. polylepis from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anolis_polylepis,_Costa_Rica.JPG Steven J. Johnson; bottom row: A. gemmosus from James Christensen's spectacular flicker site, http://www.flickr.com/people/primevalnature/; unidentified anole from http://www.morley-read.com/frogs_on_line/telimbela/lizards/source/dscn8660.html; and A. frenatus also from Christensen's flickr site.

As far as I’m aware, no one has conducted a quantitative study to compare dewlap sizes among mainland and Caribbean anoles. Sounds like a good project for someone!

More importantly, though, why do the largest dewlaps occur on the mainland? Perhaps it has something to do with the relatively low population densities and low rates of display of mainland anoles? Another project waiting to be conducted.

Female (on left) and male (on right). Tough one. Good luck. Check back for a hint in a few days if no one nails it.

Anolis capito, the pug-nosed anole. Photo by Greg Mayer from http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/summer-reading-and-summer-vacation-anoles/

What better way to start off a spring break herpetology class field trip than to go anole hunting? And what a success it was! There has been concern in recent years that the herpetofauna at the fabled La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica has been declining, but we found no shortage of herps this morning–helped, no doubt, by ample rain yesterday. Anolis humilis and A. limifrons were extremely abundant, as were strawberry poison arrow frogs and, surprisingly, night lizards. A number of A. lemurinus, beautiful red dewlap and all, were spotted, and at a stream, a trio of aquatic anoles, A. oxylophus. The highlight of the morning, however, was finding a female A. capito in its traditional spot half a meter up a tree trunk. The pug-nosed anole, as it is called, is always cryptic, and seems to have become less common in recent years, but this is our second in 24 hours, as another was found during a night walk last night.

And that was just the morning. Going for the double hat trick today, all eyes will be out for the emerald green A. biporcatus. It’s very overcast, which may work against us finding this sun-loving crown dweller often seen high in trees on sunny days. Of course, the Holy Grail of La Selva anolology is A. pentaprion, the twig anole rumored to frequent narrow branches in the canopy, and very rarely seen. But with 26 pairs of herpetological eyes on the lookout, who knows what’s possible?

Clash of the Anole Titans

From the author of “Clash of the Anole Titans” comes this poetic tale of youth redeemed, power lost, and grace under pressure. Don’t miss it.