Female Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei) Nesting Behavior in Captivity

Female A. sagrei perched above nest-site

In August 2019, while feeding a captive colony of brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) in Dr. Daniel Warner’s lab at Auburn University, I noticed a female anole crouching on the side of her nesting pot. Upon closer inspection, I realized she had dug a hole in the soil and was perched above it- apparently preparing to lay an egg. Gently prying up the lid of the cage, I snapped a few photos of this (somewhat still mysterious) event.

During the subsequent observations of this female in the lab, she laid an egg on the topsoil; however, jumping from the nesting pot, she knocked the freshly oviposited egg into the hole she created. She then returned to the nesting pot and looked to be positioning the egg within the hole (see video attached). This behavior has been previously documented in Anolis species (Propper et al. 1991; Stamps 1976) and suggests that females may provide additional influence on offspring survival and phenotype through egg-positioning.

Nest sites are critically important for embryonic development and resulting offspring phenotype (Tiatragul et al. 2019; Reedy, Zaragoza, and Warner 2013). The sequence of nesting events (i.e., oviposition, “egg-rolling” [Tokarz and Jones 1979]) may also assist females in choosing a nest-site that will maximize the survival of her offspring. While female nesting behavior has long been documented in scientific literature, it was interesting to see such (what I think of as) cryptic anole behavior! Thanks for letting me spy in on you little one!

References

Propper, Catherine R., Richard E. Jones, Matthew S. Rand, and Harriet Austin. 1991. “Nesting behavior of the lizard Anolis carolinensis.” Journal of Herpetology 25 (4): 484. https://doi.org/10.2307/1564774.

Reedy, Aaron M., David Zaragoza, and Daniel A. Warner. 2013. “Maternally chosen nest sites positively affect multiple components of offspring fitness in a lizard.” Behavioral Ecology 24 (1): 39–46. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/ars133.

Stamps, Judy A. 1976. “Egg retention, rainfall and egg laying in a tropical lizard Anolis Aeneus.” Copeia 1976 (4): 759–64. https://doi.org/10.2307/1443460.

Tiatragul, Sarin, Joshua M. Hall, Nathaniel G. Pavlik, and Daniel A. Warner. 2019. “Lizard nest environments differ between suburban and forest habitats.” Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 126 (3): 392–403. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/bly204.

Tokarz, Richard R., and Richard E. Jones. 1979. “A study of egg-related maternal behavior in Anolis Carolinensis (Reptilia, Lacertilia, Iguanidae).” Journal of Herpetology 13 (3): 283–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/1563320.