Bermuda has only one native lizard, a skink, but is blessed with three introduced anoles: A. grahami, A. leachii, and A. extremus. Or is that now four? Joe Macedonia is on the ground in Bermuda as I write, and his team of intrepid lizard watchers have snapped this beauty. To me, it looks like a male A. sagrei. Anybody got another idea? Any chance it’s A. grahami, found everywhere in Bermuda?
Anolis grahami on Bermuda. Photo by J. Losos.
If it is A. sagrei, and if this colonizer extraordinaire is firmly established, then how the population expands will be interesting to watch. As documented in detail, A. grahami spread rapidly throughout the island after its introduction in 1905, but the next two invaders expanded much more slowly, the last one to arrive, A. extremus, still having a limited distribution on one end of the island. All of these species are arboreal, however, so it is very possible that the presence of A. grahami inhibited the other two. Anolis sagrei, on the other hand, is much more terrestrial. My prediction is that if a population is established, it will quickly spread throughout the Bermudian archipelago. In turn, for someone moving quickly, this might make a great opportunity to study the ecological and evolutionary consequences of invasion. Will A. grahami populations decline? Will the species shift its habitat use, perhaps with selection to alter its morphology?
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James Lazell
Indeed, looks like sagrei to me. Skip
Rich Glor
It does look like sagrei, but I’m not confident enough to make a definitive call on this one.
Joe Burgess
I am with Rich on this.
Percentage of invasions and potential source populations favor sagrei, there is just something about the dorsal pattern and labials/chin. See image attached of scriptus.
A better image would end it.
Joe Macedonia
We are back from Bermuda. One of our 20 undergrads on this trip took a couple of fairly low quality photos with a GPS-tagging camera of some additional sagrei-looking individuals. Both photos were taken less than two city blocks from the originally posted mystery anole photo. A complicating issue is that some juvenile/subadult A. leachii exhibit a color pattern that is quite similar to A. sagrei, and worse, none of the individuals in these photos was captured.
Joe Burgess
Image on the right is a female or sub adult grahami
On the left it could be a juvenile leachi… several of the bimaculatus juveniles show similar patterns.
Thank for the update.
jakessnakes
the animal in the first photo is the brown anole (anolis sagrei) from cuba. it is not a male but a female. they are aggressive and have been introduced to the bahamas and the south u.s. where they have pushed our local green anole out of its natural environment. i have been herping in bermuda twice and have caught all three known species of anole along with one massive whistling tree frog. anyway…. the brown anole needs to be watched and kept in check it is an aggressive invasive little lizard!
Just a local
I’m not a ‘herp’ person, but I just spotted two interesting lizards here in bermuda and googled images until I found them, and they were either two adult male A. sagrei or some species which is very, very similar, should you still be interested. No pics I’m afraid.
Jonathan Losos
Pictures would be great if you could get some!
Just a local
Let’s see if I can do this:
Just a local
Different individual:
Martha Muñoz
Yikes!! Those definitely look like Anolis sagrei to me. Unfortunately, I think we can confirm the presence of this species on Bermuda.
Jonathan Losos
Those are sagrei, all right. Whereabouts on Bermuda were they? Do you have a sense of how many, or how widespread?
Just a local
They were in Paget. As I don’t actually live in that parish, I don’t know where else they might be, other than that specific location. They certainly haven’t made it to my parish, Smiths.
I saw between seven and ten that I was certain were sagrei, of various sizes and with and without the back frill, and few more I wasn’t positive about. The lizards had confined themselves to a small section of plants, and I didn’t see lizards of any sort in other areas of plants. Perhaps those particular plants were less disturbed?
As I was leaving the parking lot of the neighboring property I did spot another, larger lizard which might possibly have been of the same species, though it seemed much larger. Unfortunately I couldn’t stop to get a better look, so it could simply have been a normal lizard shedding in an unfortunate way.
Mark Outerbridge
I have just been made aware of this website (thanks to a colleague of Jonathan Losos) and am greatful to be able to read the dialogue. I am the wildlife ecologist for the Department of Conservation Services (based in Flatt’s Village) and am very keen to learn more about the Anolis sagrei sightings. That species has been positively identified (via a physical specimen now in the collection of the Natural History Museum) as being present in Bermuda.
‘Just a local’, would you be able to tell me where exactly in Paget you were when you spotted those 10 individuals? Would you (Joe Macedonia) be able to provide the GPS coordinates for your sighting as well?
Many thanks.
Bermie Girl
Does anyone recognize this guy/girl (it was about 6 inches long so assuming guy). He was chilling out in my garden early yesterday morning and very placid when I approached. I nearly stepped on him. I guess the chilly morning air had him sedated. Would love to know what species he is if any of the experts have an insight. Thanks 🙂
Jonathan Losos
Looks like Anolis leachi, one of the introduced anoles of Bermuda
Bermie Girl
Thank you.