Nearly one week has passed since I entered the Bahamas in search of Anolis brunneus, the Crooked Island anole. Since then I have also been joined by Michele Johnson and two students to help study the behavior and ecology of this poorly known species. I am happy to report that the lizards are treating us well and copious amounts of data are being collected each day. There are several developments that I thought might be of interest to the readers of this blog.
First, the anoles are everywhere! We have surveyed the entirety of the island and have found lizards in almost every habitat: in the sea grapes, in the forest, along the beach, along the arid southern coast, and even in the Bahamian Pines. The only habitat seemingly void of these fine lizards are the mangroves and coastal sea grasses. Green and brown anoles on this island seem to readily share the habitat as we regularly see them in close proximity but rarely fighting for perch space. Compared to A. sagrei, A. brunneus is mild mannered and extremely easy to capture making it a real pleasure to work with.
We have been surprised to find a lack of gravid females and little mating behavior in A. brunneus. After nearly 30 hours of field observation we have yet to observe copulation even once. Of the 40 females that have been captured not one has been gravid. Based on my past experiences I find this surprising and already this year I have collected eggs from four species, including the closely related A. carolinensis. Could the A. brunneus mating season be tightly tied to the island’s rainy season, which according to the locals will not start for several more weeks? Considering that we have observed multiple battles between males suggests that mating season is not far off, but this still seems later what I would expect.
I will end this post with a classic Anole Annals game: Find the Anole. The first photo highlights some of the colonial ruins found on the island. The second photo illustrates the high density of A. brunneus on this island. How many individuals do you see in the photo? Good luck!
Find the anole: Easy difficulty (Click to enlarge)
Find the anoles (Click to enlarge)
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Joe Burgess
Only saw one in the first picture… had to be more.
Saw 3, all brunneus in the second
Ludovic Deutsch
I found 3 anoles.
There are more?
Hispanioland
That’s a really elegant anole! Very sharp snout and nice pattern.
Thomas Sanger
Joe, Ludovic – you were both correct. The windy hillside of the first photo was covered with anoles, but A. sagrei appeared to use the broken walls of the colonial ruins as part of its habitat. There are three A. brunneus in the second photo but we saw no fewer than seven unique individuals in just this one bush, three males and four females.
Donna Willingham
We enjoyed meeting your group at Willie’s and hope you and your specimens arrived home safely. Would you please send the picture to the Holy Goats? We have not been able to catch them at Church.
Thomas Sanger
It was great talking with you and your friends. I hope you continue to find watching these little guys enjoyable. Your enthusiasm was somewhat intoxicating.
Father, son, and the holy goats.