Photo tweeted by Sarah Knutie. Have we talked about cannibalism previously on AA? A quick search on our search bar finds two hits, one noting such tendencies in knight anoles, the other not very specific. Who’s seen it?
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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Armando Pou
I have personally observed cannibalistic behaviors in A. sagrei, A. carolinensis/porcatus, and A. cristatellus. On every occasion it has been a young adult male from early in the year eating a late hatchling. I have witnessed cross-species cannibalism also with A. sagrei eating A. carolinensis and A. distichus young as well as A. carolinensis eating A. sagrei young. I have not seen A. distichus eating any young or any females eating young, but that may be a factor of size.
BTW-great photo, fantastic details. Were there 4 o’clock flowers nearby?
KarenC
A few years ago I saw an adult male A. sagrei jump from a tree trunk to the ground to grab up and eat a little hatchling A. sagrei. I didn’t get any photos. The adult male was a pretty good-sized anole as I remember, and the baby was tiny.
Armando Pou
Just to clarify my statement, when I stated “young adult male” I meant they were fully mature in size, but not second or third year lizards which in my observations show the identifiable traits of older lizards.
Dan
A large contingent of brown anole in the yard this year, especially small ones. I questioned why the larger ones, which seem very territorial, have left them be until lately. As the days get shorter I have noticed an increase in the larger ones feasting on the younger ones. Have they left the smaller ones as feedstock as winter approach?
Karen B
I live in the Tampa area and spend a lot of time observing and hand feeding mostly brown Smiles outside my home. I do have one green anole that also eats from my hand and seems more trusting of me than the others. I always thought that only males had dewlaps and only recently read females also have them, but they are much smaller. I always wondered why larger males would attempt to breed with “smaller/younger males”…now I know they are female. Only recently have I ever seen cannibalism among these anoles. I have seen this behavior twice in the last two days for the first time. I think it is the same offender with the tail of a new hatchling hanging out of its mouth. Yesterday, I saw him with a new baby in his mouth and he ran off. The larger males don’t seem interested in eating the young as it could be his offspring. Good photo!
Shirley A Vaughn
Thanks that’s terrible I just have to separate the babies when they come