We’ve had a series of posts on orangey brown anoles in Florida, but this most recent example is a stunner. Thanks to Heather Stewart for providing this photo of a fine male from Boca Raton, FL, photographed this past January. Heather pointed out that other brown anoles in the populations were quite normal looking.
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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Kenneth Barnett
Great image!
Tony Gamble
Wow! That is very cool looking!
Armando Pou
Beautiful specimen! I had a nice population of red individuals before a neighbor decided to let his cat army multiply.
Zane
I work in the field and have been seeing a lot of red heads. Seen one a couple weeks ago that had a solid black body and a super red head. Took off way faster than I could move to catch or photo. Most seem to look like this guy. I’m in Gainesville.
Teresa
I was trying to find out the type of lizard I’ve been seeing in my backyard. I saw the picture of the orange brown anole, and where it’s been seen. I’m in Jacksonville Florida!! So they are a lot farther than everyone knows now!
mia
I’ve seen them in my backyard in Jax too & a friend had one that was rusty red all over. Is that a hybrid?
Chris Plummer
Also in Jax and photographed him yesterday. Very small, maybe 2 inch body.
Deborah Bifulco
This is an interesting post. I just saw one of these today and was puzzling over what it was – your post explained it perfectly.
Here’s the one I saw today at the FL Botanical Gardens in Largo, FL
Candace Brazzil
I live in Southeast Texas kind of close to the coast, and just seen one of these for the first time. All my other browns look the same. Just this guy was smaller, had a red head and a very bright white-ish stripe all the way down it’s tail. Doesn’t look like the same species, but at same time it still has similar markings.
Kelly Lynn
I found this guy hanging out on my fence yesterday. I found this website trying to research it. I’m in New Smyrna Beach which is on the east coast of central FL. This is the first one I’ve seen in our area, or anywhere for that matter.
Hanley Smith
I saw several red headed brown anoles in early March in the Riverside area of Jacksonville, FL.
gv
Spotted a juvenile brown anole with a flaming red head in Tallahassee. Appears they’re making their way across the state!
Karen J
We have them all over the place and Port St. Lucie. They are lovely!
DMK
I have one of these living in a metal turtle sculpture on my pool deck. She comes out & hangs around during the day, but doesn’t leave my screened in lanai, only in the turtle. She peeks out when we are in the pool. Today I saw her orange throat (besides the orange head) for the first time! She’s fun to watch and looks just like this photo! I live in Estero, near SW gulf coast of FL
Taylor
In Jacksonville Florida I just saw two of these. One was more copper colored, the other was bright red like the one in this picture.
anthony paez
What is the red headed variety? I remember when I was a kid I saw them everywhere and for a long time I never saw them again but I’m starting to see them now.. I’ve researched the Brown Cuban anole and I never see anything about why some get a red head…
Diane
This is a female. The brown anoles with the stripe down their back are females, males do not have the stripe. https://animalia.bio/brown-anole And the orange heads are only seen on the females it seems. I live in Louisiana and these browns have taken over our green lizard habitat everywhere it seems. I wonder if it is because they have eaten all the green babies over the last several years so that there are just no more green anoles to be found? It is quite sad because having grown up with our green anole population in abundance South Louisiana over the past 75 years to now be unable to find one green one is quite distressing! Are there any green anoles to be found anywhere in the South of the nation?
Bryce
You are wrong on nearly every point you tried to make. Females have a more pronounced stripe while the males have a faint one but sometimes still can show lots of striping. Orange heads are not only seen on females. It is more common in females but not only seen on them. Brown anoles have not removed the green anoles. The green anoles dominate higher up and brown anoles dominate lower down. I actually brought Louisiana green anoles back to Florida because they seem better at living side by side. I still have them living together side by side every day after 9 years. Each population can have traits more common in its own group not seen in all populations.
Nick
Saw my first one like this today and had to catch it to examine close up. I was in satellite Beach and am used to seeing only brown or larger black ones around there.