Check out this photo by Tomás Michel Rodríguez-Cabrera. Here’s what he had to say: “I was by a stream at Cajalbana Floristic Reserve in Pinar del Río, when I saw the anole jumping to the water. When it came out it was carrying a topminow, Gambusia punctata, that it later swallowed.
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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Brian Hillen
Great picture of a cool behavior! 🙂
Kurt Schwenk
This is extremely cool! (and a great photo) Other anoles have been observed attempting to catch fish in water, but not in field/natural conditions. I would REALLY like to know how they do this! Presumably they use the jaws, which would be exceptional behavior for an iguanian lizard.
dillon
and if they do use the jaws do they have one of those things gators have in their throat
Chris Thawley
Leal et al. 2002 (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0014-3820.2002.tb01389.x) report hunting of small fish but it’s not clear if they witnessed a successful catch…very cool!
Kurt Schwenk
Thanks for the reference Chris—very helpful.
Bukovský Tomy
Great…but this a behavior Anolis vermiculatus was wroten to book , Czech language ” Na lovu vzácných krokodýlů” by Zdeněk Vogel. cca 1967.
Jonathan Losos
Could you provide a pdf of the text, or better yet a translation? I don’t think we English speakers are aware of it!