Cophotis ceylanica. Photo by M. Wickramasinghe
It’s got a dewlap, too!
Those upstart Asian agamids are at it again, trying to out-anole anoles. We’ve already marveled at the dewlap of Sitana and its friends, which—I hesitate to say this—makes any anole dewlap look bland by comparison. Now can we all agree that this guy here, Cophotis ceylandica, is a twig anole’s twig anole?
Any way, the photo comes from a new paper that reports an observation of a jungle crow in a Sri Lankan park catching one of these guys, tearing it in half (grutesome!) and then eating it. And then it did it again three more times in the next half hour, two more C. ceylandica and a third, unidentified lizard. This was just one bird in a flock of 37, and guards at the park say they are quite prolific lizard catchers. The authors make the interesting point that jungle crow populations in the park appeared to have grown as a result of all of the garbage, and an incidental victim of this may be lizard populations.
German speakers, we need you again. Can you look at the attached paper and confirm that the two parts are German and English versions of the same text?
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Roberto Langstroth
Yep, the German and English articles are same, they just share the same figures. Excellent discussion of role of bird predation on arboreal lizards! Thanks for this find!
Roberto Langstroth
Below the same article, see this link http://www.scribd.com/doc/140799461/An-unusual-behavior-of-Otocryptis-nigristigma-Sri-Lanka to an article on another amazingly anole-like agamid, Otocrypris nigristigma, apparently closely related to Sitana.
Roberto Langstroth
Below the same article, see this link http://www.scribd.com/doc/140799461/An-unusual-behavior-of-Otocryptis-nigristigma-Sri-Lanka to an article on another amazingly anole-like agamid, Otocrypris nigristigma, apparently closely related to Sitana.
Hari
I’ve always loved the Anoles and all the excellent work you guys do. But I’ve also felt that Agamids can be an equally fantastic system, may be even better (oops!).
Rich Glor
Lizard cuckoos really slay anoles in the Caribbean and I’ve seen crows pick off injured animals there as well. I’m working up a post on a recent report of anole bird interactions from the latest J. Herp.
Josh
I think Cophotis and Alot of Sir Lankan Agamids are very cool but I’m a Anole fan (Mostly Anolis,Polychrus,Phenacosaurus, and Dactyloa but I love them all I’m actually trying to create a “Mainly” Anole breeding business on rarer Anoles and Morphs but I’m getting side tracked, I believe Cophotis are closely related, yes they are FAR away from Anoles in the world but Anoles are evolutionary and can adapt quite well they are a very under rated species, for all we know they could ever hitched a ride back in the “Golden Age Of Piracy” they could ever travel that far now this is an idea yes there are DRAMATIC changes in weather but Anoles are adaptive soo that’s my idea of Anolis evolving to Cophotis!