Green Anoles in La-La Land! Greg Pauly at the Los Angeles County Museum confirms that they are well-established in Hancock Park, a large park that includes the La Brea Tar Pits and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Invasive species are no laughing matter, but surely we can make an exception for an anole in LA. Jokes, anyone? Thanks to AA commenter Don Lyman for bringing this to our attention.
Greg Pauly and Left Coast anole
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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William D. Robertson
There appears to be a little confusion in this post with respect to the location. The LA NHM blog post is referring to the Hancock Park neighbor (as does the linked Wikipedia page). This is a different location than the actual park known as Hancock Park, which includes the La Brea Tar Pits.
Greg Pauly
William is correct. As much as I like the idea of an anole becoming added to the list of organisms preserved in the asphalt seeps of Ranch La Brea, the anoles are not in Hancock Park, but in the Hancock Park neighborhood. However, the neighborhood is only about 1.5 miles from the tar pits. This is a rather upscale neighborhood adjacent to the Wilshire Country Club. Houses in this area tend to be on large, well landscaped, and well irrigated lots. I think the irrigation is probably important providing plenty of moisture and micro-climates with higher humidity for the anoles.
Jim
I caught hundreds of Anoles in the 60’s I lived near The Wilshire Ebell I started seeing them all around my parents yard as I was growing up , Jim
Yoel Stuart
I hadn’t noticed the green anole on the Hollywood sign before. Nice.
Jim
I grew up close to Larchmont went to Daniel Murphy High School I caught hundreds of Green Anoles on Sundays at the pet shop because they were closed. They were great escape artists when they would get away I would go catch some more at the pet shop across from Rampart Police station in the 60’s years later I was seeing them all over the yard .I think they spread all over that area , Jim
Jim
I caught hundreds of Anoles at the pet shop on pico in the 60’s I lived near the Ebell theatre , Jim