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Year: 2013 Page 6 of 37
A cobra in the Caribbean? No, the Hispaniolan brown racer, Haitiophis anomalus. As AA contributor Miguel Landestoy reports in the September issue of IRCF Amphibians & Reptiles, more than half of all prey consumed by these snakes were anoles (Miguel: which species?). The article is a comprehensive overview of the natural history of this little known species, including much data newly collected by the author.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get better, it has: a grass-bush anole has been added to the original four ecomorph wristwatches. The watch features a Puerto Rican Anolis pulchellus from a beautiful photograph kindly provided by Manuel Leal. Check it out along with the other four ecomorph watches at zazzle.com.
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Apparently they can, as they graph above indicates: Captive brown anoles tilt their heads more when the call of a kestrel or hawk is played compared to their response to calls from a variety of more benign feathers. These results come from a study on 32 captive brown anoles conducted by Cantwell and Forrest and published recently in the Journal of Herpetology. We’ve had a bit of discussion on the hearing ability of anoles–we tend to focus on anole visual capability, but its clear that they can hear and thus the role of auditory capabilities in the lives of anoles deserves more study (as do their vocalizations).
Greetings to the Anole Annals community,
‘Many anoles vocalize. Most, however, are either trunk-ground or arboreal forms such as this A. grahami (photo by J. Losos).
I love anoles and spend a lot of time wishing that I could personally observe the cornucopia of species that the world has to offer, though not being a scientist by profession and only encountering a small number of anole species in my immediate vicinity, I am limited to finding all about anoles that I can and trying my best to explain any interesting patterns that I notice, which brings me to the subject of this post.
On Jamaica, the island where I currently reside, there are seven species of anole lizards. However, only two of these, A. grahami and A. lineatopus, have an island-wide distribution and, more importantly, they are the only two which occur with great frequency in urban areas of south-eastern Jamaica, so naturally when I first began catching anoles these guys were my most frequent quarry. My surprise came while I was holding a large, freshly noosed grahami, which I soon discovered is not among the list of creatures that readily accept being caught. In addition to thrashing wildly and making several futile attempts to do whatever damage it could with its diminutive teeth, the lizard let out a high-pitched squeak, sort of like a rubber duck being stepped on; this was so surprising to me that I immediately flung the lizard away and was left to watch as he scrambled away, no doubt feeling pretty good about his completely accidental victory.
It didn’t take me a lot of searching on the web to find out that vocalizations had been recorded for other species of anoles before, and so I decided to compile a list of every species that I could find for which there was any record of them vocalizing; so, for anyone who has ever wondered, here it is:
- All the cybotoids (A. cybotes and relatives)
- A. garmani, A. valencienni, A. opalinus, A. grahami
- A. biporcatus, A. petersi, A. salvini (synonymous with A. vociferans)
- A.roquet, A. trinitatis, A. extremus
- A. chocorum
- A. chlorocyanus , A. coelestinus, A. vermiculatus, A. hendersoni
- A.occultus
Anolis conspersus. Anybody?
The list is immediately confounding in that there are at least three species groups up there (the grahami, hendersoni and roquet groups) in which all species are very closely related, but only some species vocalize; why is this ability popping up so inconsistently? I don’t think it has anything to do with any particular ecomorphs having more use for this ability than others as only one of the six ecomorphs is not represented, and it is also obvious that this trait is completely absent from some of the distinct lineages within Anolis (the genera proposed by Nicholson et al. 2012) while it shows up here and there in others. There are some species I suspect may possess the ability… such as A. conspersus, a close relative of A. grahami, but I have been able to find no mention or vocalization for this or any other species not listed above. I would love to hear if anyone has personally observed this for any other species (Anolis cybotes was the only cybotoid I had read about vocalizing, while all the others only came to my attention after an AA commenter gave an eyewitness testimony).
As to why this ability is present in some anoles in the first place, this seems to be a mystery. I know that a study was once conducted on A. grahami in which a few individuals were dissected and an attempt was made to identify sound producing structures, but none were found. The study also found that while the anoles vocalized while in aggressive confrontations, they did not respond to playback of these same vocalizations, at least not in the presence of visual stimuli, suggesting that these vocalizations do not play a pivotal role in anole social interactions. The effects of environment on whether an anole is able to vocalize are also probably negligent as the ability is present in all sorts of anoles, from mainland twig species living in mesic environments like A.salvini to West Indian xeric species such as A.whitemanni and all-around generalists like A.roquet of Martinique.
A. cybotes, very far from being arboreal
Then again, perhaps we are just looking too deeply into this. After all, when that anole squeaked at me I dropped him, which I’m sure is what he would have wanted to come out of that situation. Also, I have read that some anoles hiss ultrasonically when threatened or confronted; perhaps the big squeakers are just more intent on getting their point across.
Whatever the answer to this seemingly perplexing question is, I hope somebody figures it out eventually. Unfortunately I have stopped catching anoles and for the most part have stopped reading about them as well, so I probably won’t be adding any new species to the list. I hope anybody else with an interest in anoles comes across this post so they can find the full list of species. Unless there are more out there still, that is.
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
I’ve just finished reading The Symbol, the spectacular new book by Dappen, Losin, and Pérez-Mellado on the Ibiza wall Lizard, Podarcis pityusensis. We’ve already discussed in these pages the exploits of the first two authors, Ph.D.’s-turned-filmmakers who have already produced some exceptional science documentaries, most with a lizard focus. And we helped advertise their ultimately successful effort to crowd-source funding for their trip to the Pityusic Archipelago to produce the book. As a result, we saw the spectacular photos and videos they posted along the way, as the project was in progress. For all of these reasons, we had high expectations for the ensuing volume.
And now The Symbol has arrived, and our expectations have been vastly exceeded. In a word, the book is fabulous, or should we say “fabuloso, fabelhaft, favoloso” because the book is simultaneously written in English, Spanish, German and Italian? At first pass, what grabs attention are the photographs, which are amazing. Of course, with a resplendent species like Podarcis pityusensis to work with, the Day’s Edge team had good material with which to work, but they’ve made the most of it. The photos are lustrous, exquisite, sharp and beautifully framed.
But what was so unexpected is the fascinating evolutionary pageant put on by these lizards. We had no idea that they were so extraordinarily diverse, exhibiting dramatically different colors manifest over small geographic distances.
Check out the geographic distribution of the different color forms, 23 of which are recognized as distinct subspecies. Truly extraordinary.
The authors comprehensively review the natural history and evolutionary diversity of these lizards, explaining in a way that will be captivating to a general audience. Ibiza is a world-renowned tourist destination, and the Ibizans love their local lizards, so this book will no doubt be of great value to locals and tourists alike, and doubtless will educate a wide audience.
Yet, the book also holds value to the seasoned herpetologist. The discussion of the biology of this species is thorough and first-rate, and the photos capture in unusually vivid detail many important aspects of their ecology and behavior.
Anole biologists, the challenge has been thrown down. Dappen and colleagues have shown what a fabulous book looks like. Our lizards are equally enticing and photogenic–let’s see a book on a Caribbean anole!
Olivier Testa, a french speleologist in Port-au-Prince, just returned from a five week speleological expedition in the area, where the team recorded more than 80 shafts and encountered this anole at the bottom of one. There’s a video, too. Anyone know what it is?
Dear anole experts,
I recently met this anole on the slopes of Mount Chirripo (Costa Rica), at an altitude of ca. 1300 m, perching on rather low vegetation (agave leaves, small perches…). The dewlap was uniformly yellow.
Is there anyone who knows what species this could be?
Thanks in advance. All best,
Florian Boucher