Photo courtesy Marissa Pierce
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.
Latest posts by Jonathan Losos (see all)
- Remarkarble Recovery of the Endangered Lizard Anolis nubilus on the Island of Redonda - December 22, 2024
- Rare Anoles Featured in BioBlitz Trailer! - December 12, 2024
- Research on the Lizard Wars of South Florida - December 1, 2024
Bruce B. Collette
Where was this photo taken? Is this a case of one introduced species eating another, perhaps in Florida?
Skip Lazell
Needs data: where & when…. Skip
kuti ra
Doesn’t that look a lot like a gecko? Especially the head and toes.
Tony Gamble
I agree, that snack is very Hemidactylus looking
Pest Control in Orange County Ca
I agree, the feet are seemingly a dead give away. Where was this photo taken?
Jonathan Losos
I had the same thought, but the photographer says that it definitely was a sagrei. I think the glare is misleading.
Kenneth E. Barnett
WOW!!!! I have to see a video of this!!
Kenneth E. Barnett
Wait a minute, that doesn’t look like a brown anole to me. Okay, just saw I’m not the only one thinking it is Hemidactylus species, probably “frenatus.”
Kenneth E. Barnett
This is an important image!!! It explains a few things about what I’m seeing here in Broward RE: equestris behavior!!! Hemidactylus could be a pretty big part of their diet- even more so than A. sagrei! 🙂
Marissa
I can’t believe this is actually making “news”. Those of us in South Florida have been aware of it for quite some time. Same as segrei eating our native greens. I’ve also observed Knights eating Basilisks, unfortunately did not document it. Here is a picture to better confirm identification. He only looks “gecko-y” because it was taken with my camera phone with full zoom from far away and then tried to sharpen post. Check out the tail in this pic.
Jonathan Losos
Marissa, you would be surprised at how little of the natural history of these animals is actually documented. For example, I am pretty sure that there are no published accounts of knight anoles eating basilisks, and few very of brown anoles eating green anoles in nature.
Marissa
I’ll try to document more then. That really does surprise me. I’ve seen it quite often. They definitely are not harmless to our native animals. They’ll eat anything they can fit in their mouths. I saw an adult green anole in my yard months ago, but haven’t seen him since, and i fear this monster was to blame. :/
On any given day, I can count 3 Knights, 20+ segrei, 5+ Curly taileds, and 0 green anoles.
James Stroud
Hi Marissa, where in south Florida was this taken?
I see knight anole predation of other lizard species incredibly rarely, although did report an incident of a knight anole eating a bark anole (A. distichus) some time last year – Stroud, J.T. (2014) Exotic intraguild predation. Herp Review
Marissa
My backyard, in Fort Lauderdale. I have seen mass numbers of Knights everywhere from the tip of Homestead all the way up to Boca Raton. Impressively, some of the other lizards I’ve seen them consume were not much different in size. I have also seen owls eating Knights on the other hand. Unfortunately, since moving to South Florida, I’ve seen far more Knight Anoles than Greens. Probably 50:1 ratio
Daniel Scantlebury
This is definitely a Hemidactylus. While I might be taking too much stock in my instinct, I am fairly confident this is Hemidactylus [Cosymbotus] platyurus, which would also make this photo an important record for a recent invasive species.
James Stroud
Maybe, but I would put my money on H. mabouia.