In January 2013 I was in the Amazon rainforest in Peru near Iquitos, looking for herps to photograph. This was my first significant visit to Amazonia and I was surprised at the dearth of anoles. I hadn’t (yet) caught up on enough anole literature to realize that the anole density in that area is so very much smaller than the anole density in the Caribbean or Florida. On a good anole-finding day, I only saw perhaps three or four during the day, and another five or six sleeping at night on leaves and twigs. Most of the anoles I encountered were Anolis trachyderma, such as these two sleepers. Alas, their leafy beds were perhaps not as safe as they might have hoped…
The most commonly-seen snake on this trip was the notorious anole-eater Imantodes cenchoa, and I was lucky enough to observe one that had just nabbed a poor innocent Anolis trachyderma. It was unbothered by the three people watching it devour its hapless meal.
Gotcha!
What big eyes you have, grandma
Just a tiny bit of tail left unswallowed
Now, being a sensible lizard-loving sort of person, I don’t really approve of this behavior, but it was definitely an interesting sight to see, and I thought the good folks at Anole Annals might enjoy seeing the photos.
- Please Help Identify Two Anoles from Jacmel, Haiti - June 6, 2016
- Anolis trachyderma Loses a Sleeping-on-Leaf Battle with a Snake - June 26, 2014
- Which Puerto Rican Anoles Are These? - June 17, 2014
Pat Shipman
Fantastic shots!
Harry Greene
Assuming it’s true that anoles use their light-weight leafy sleeping pads as warning devices if a predator comes along the petiole (I have seen them jump into darkness when the leaf was visibly disturbed), part of what’s cool about Imantodes cenchoa is that by anchoring the stout posterior well up-plant from the target leaves, it can swing its head out like a crane, tongue-flicking for prey without touching the leaves, then snatch the anole from above.
Ambika Kamath
Very cool! Is that behaviour rare in snakes? Do most snakes move along branches in ways that would enable sleeping anoles to sense them coming? In other words, does the explanation for why anoles sleep on leaves and twigs make sense, assuming that snakes are their primary night-time predators?
Robert Powell
Ambika, see among others: Yorks, D.T., K.E. Williamson, R.W. Henderson, R. Powell, and J.S. Parmerlee, Jr. 2004. Foraging behavior in the arboreal boid Corallus grenadensis. Studies of the Neotropical Fauna and Environment 38: 167–172.