Anoles (Sort of) Eat Mice

After last week’s report about Tokay geckos consuming small rats, readers may be concerned that their favorite lizard is lacking a little in the predator department. Fear no longer! In this recent article, Torres and Acosta describe an Anolis porcatus observed carrying a dead house mouse. While the authors suspect that the mouse was disoriented by venom pellets when it was caught (and that the mouse was probably too big for the lizard to consume), it still goes to show that anoles have plenty of killer instinct. This plucky A. porcatus is especially impressive since almost all previous reports of predation by anoles on small vertebrates feature much larger crown giants.

Torres, J. and M. Acosta. 2014. Predation attempt by Anolis porcatus (Sauria, Dactyloidae) on Mus musculus (Rodentia, Muridae). Herpetology Notes 7:525-526.