A very ambitious brown anole
I arrived a day early for the 2018 Anolis Symposium. When it became clear I was not needed to help get things ready, I did what any red-blooded anolologist would do: I headed off for All-America Park, the hottest of hotspots for Miami anoles.
And what a day it was. Two minutes after leaving my hotel, I saw what I’m pretty sure was an Ameiva, though I didn’t get a good look. Then red-headed agamas underneath the monorail on the Dixie Highway.
Plenty o’ iguanas. How many can you find?
How many green iguanas can you find?
And curly-tailed lizards!
Along the way, I also saw three introduced anoles: (A. sagrei, A. cristatellus and A. distichus).
Anolis distichus
Finally, I got to All-America Park and immediately met five-term South Miami mayor Phil Stoddard, who doubles as a crackerjack neuroethologist at Florida International University, and is a great naturalist to boot. We walked around the park looking for Anolis garmani, the Jamaican giant anole, but without success. There were plenty of other anoles at the Park, all the same ones I’d already seen, but also a knight anole and 13 green anoles–they definitely are doing just fine despite all the invasives. The lizard search was conducted to a soundtrack of screeching peacocks and the occasional flock of parrots flying back. I love Miami! Sadly, no Jamaican giant anoles, A. garmani. That’ll have to wait for a return visit.
Anolis equestris at All-America Park
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