Anole At My Door

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On March 30, 2012

In Natural History Observations

I have extensively photographed Anole in an urban environment because they are so readily available here in south Florida literally outside my door and frequently indoors too. Despite the lamentations of displacement of the native Anolis carolinensis, they are frequently observed in my immediate area. I will present a few photos showing confrontations between the variety of West Indian Anole and the native green. Knight anole is also present, mostly juvenile as I do not observe fully grown specimens either because of adult movement to other areas or the wide variety of predators, mostly large birds. More about geckoes, basilisks and iguana will be posted in related forums.

The Reproductive Cycle Of The Brown Anole In Taiwan

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On March 30, 2012

In All Posts

Brown anoles mating.

Most invasive vertebrates have a high reproductive rate, and are able to build up a large population under ideal conditions. A recently published report on the reproductive cycle of the brown anole (Anolis sagrei) in Taiwan highlights this again.

This study demonstrated that the reproductive cycle of the Anolis sagrei population in Taiwan is long and cyclic, and that it is very similar to that of conspecific populations in Belize, Cuba, Florida, and Hawaii.

We found that as in Florida, the females become sexually mature at about 34 mm SVL. As in other studies, we found that Anolis sagrei females produces multiple clutches, consisting of a single egg, throughout most of the year, and that due to sperm storage, are able to produce viable eggs for a few weeks, even in the absence of males.

Unlike in other studies, we found that the males could be sexually mature at a much smaller SVL (ca. 30 mm), and that at least some males with spermatozoa, which could mate, are present throughout the year. The smaller SVL of the males mean a shorter time from hatching to the age at which mating can commence. And even though it is uncertain that such males would be able to compete with larger territorial males, these smaller males would certainly have mating opportunities in the absence of larger males in founder populations.

We found that the hatchlings have a SVL of about 18 mm, and as in other studies, they hatch after a period of about 30 days.

In view of the potential for A. sagrei taking over new territories, to prevent future introductions of this species, we strongly feel that drastic steps are merited.

Dive Duration in Anolis oxylophus

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On March 30, 2012

In Natural History Observations

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.

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A Request for Photographs of A. smallwoodi and A. ricordii

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On March 29, 2012

In Ask the Experts

Does anybody have some pictures of wild Anolis smallwoodi or Anolis ricordii that they could send me?  If so, please send them to me at wbaugher@nashvillezoo.org.  They are for personal use for comparing animals in a collection.  Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

Portion of the Dewlap 100% Transparent!

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On March 29, 2012

In Natural History Observations, Notes from the Field

During our Anolis distichus work in the DR last summer, we found one male who had a portion of his dewlap that was completely transparent!

Holey dewlapped Anolis distichus from near Higuey

Of course, there was a hole in his dewlap. (Sorry Manuel).

It’s fairly common to find male anoles with damaged dewlaps. Sometimes there’s a hole punched through like the individual pictured here. (Did he snag it on a thorn? Was he pecked at by a bird?) Other times, the hyoid process is broken such that the dewlap doesn’t fully extend, if it extends at all. Yet these males often successfully hold territories that include females.

A previous post on AA asked, “What’s all the fuss about dewlaps?” Link to that post to read about research that experimentally reduced or disabled the dewlap to study the consequences. These studies did not find an appreciable effect of a disabled dewlap on the outcome of male-male battles (staged in the lab) or on copulation success (measured in the field after dewlap manipulation). These results suggest, counterintuitively, that dewlaps may not play a large role in reproductive success.

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Anolis woodi at Las Alturas

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On March 27, 2012

In Notes from the Field

Participating in the Organization for Tropical Studies’ course in tropical biology recently took me to amazing Las Alturas, a satellite field station of the Las Cruces Biological Station in southern Costa Rica. The site is adjacent to the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve, close to the border with Panama, and hiking around Las Alturas takes one into some beautiful primary forest. Returning from a long hike, course-mate Amy Miller and I happened upon this anole:

Anole at Las Alturas

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Which Museum Has The Most Anoles?

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On March 27, 2012

In Anole Annals Trivia

Rich Glor recently put up a fascinating post on the enormous number of Anolis specimens deposited in the natural history museum at the University of Kansas, which got me thinking: which natural history museums house the most anole specimens? I’ve got the answer (you can, too, if you go to Herpnet, but what fun is that?): Who can name the top five? One caveat: apparently the holdings from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology are not available. I supplemented my studies by going to the British Museum’s website, and I think all the other major players are on Herpnet, though would welcome news to the contrary.

So, here’s a bit of information, a hint of sorts: the leading institution has nearly twice as many specimens as the second place depository, which in turn has more than half again as many as the third, which is barely ahead of the fourth and the fifth.

And here’s something else: very few museums have any specimens registered under the generic name Norops. I’m not saying that the proposal to split Anolis into multiple genera is dead (see here), but clearly it didn’t get a lot of traction in the museum world. Oddly, though, one of the bastion’s of anti-Norops sentiment, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, has 75 Norops. We’ll have to see how long that stands.

Any way, have at it. Top 5: Which are they?

Anoles on Postage Stamps–Who Knew There Were So Many?

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On March 26, 2012

In Anoles in Commerce

Uwe Bartelt of Germany clearly enjoys the distinction of being the world’s greatest collector of anole postage stamps. Presented below are the highlights of his collection. Who knew there were so many anole stamps? What a wondrous exhibition! Click on each stamp to get a close-up view. More info below.

Uwe says this about his collection:

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Mystery Lizard: It’s Sitana!

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On March 24, 2012

In Anole Annals Trivia

 

No flies on you guys. I put up a mystery “lizard”—note: not “anole”—with a beautiful white dewlap and the trademark diamondback pattern of a female anole, but few were fooled and it was quickly identified as the southeast Asian agamid lizard, Sitana ponticeriana. The dead giveaway—if you want to be technical—is the presence of only four toes on the hindfoot.

This species—or very possibly a complex of species—shows remarkable geographic variability in dewlap color. See the gorgeous red, black and blue one here. They’re even said to change color seasonally, from blue to white, but I’m not sure how well-established that is.

This photograph comes from J.N. Trivedi’s fascinating 2010 Master’s Dissertation entitled “Study of courtship behaviour of Fan – throated lizard Sitana ponticeriana in scrublands of Vadodara city Gujarat.”

Enormous Dewlaps, Mainland-Style

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On March 23, 2012

In Natural History Observations

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.

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