Braving the elements in Charleson.
We all think of anoles as warm weather, tropical beasties, but of course, that’s not entirely the case. Many live at quite high elevations and are active at cool temperatures. For example, this past summer we saw A. orcesi active (as active as it gets) when temperatures were 20 C and below.
In addition, anoles get relatively far north into temperate areas of the United States. One might think that they’d just go to sleep in the winter and not come back out til the spring warmth, but that’s not the case. Faithful contributor Marc Tollis discusses one recent observation over on his own blog, Anolis Tollis.
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.
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Joe Burgess
I was in the Blue Mountains this past week and saw A.opalinus (and reconditus) active at 15C and while raining! Was surprised to see opalinus living at that height. I thought only reconditus was there.
Jonathan Losos
I’ve seen opalinus up there, too. Sometimes they have very blue tails. Did the ones you saw there have that?
Joe Burgess
As a matter of fact one of the females I saw did.
Most where very dark, trying to obtain some heat.