I recently observed one of my female green anoles swallowing a freshly laid egg, which I suspect came from the other female in the harem. I looked online to see if this behavior is common in green anoles and I was unable to find any information about it. It seems that this exceptional behavior has yet to be reported. I am not sure why my lizard did this.
Considering that my anoles have access to ample resources, including fruit baby food and plenty of gut-loaded crickets and mealworms, I do not believe that her behavior was prompted by a nutritional deficiency. Perhaps it is a novel form of intraspecific maternal competition. Maybe it is unique to mating in captivity. Or maybe this behavior is unique to this particular female — she does eat a lot, and rather indiscriminately. It is also worth mentioning that she is the comparatively larger and more dominant female out of the two.
I am curious to know if anyone else has witnessed this sort of behavior in green anoles, or if they have any ideas about why she did it. Luckily, I was able to catch some of it on video with my cellphone (please excuse the quality and my shaky hands!) just before she swallowed the egg in its entirety.
- UVB Basking by Anoles - October 19, 2021
- A Female Green Anole Eats a Freshly Laid Egg - April 18, 2021
Julie Hinsley
I have 1.2 group of gastropholis prasina that do this. I think it’s a competition thing. Also perhaps they know when they are infertile eggs? Not sure as the eggs don’t look like slugs but I haven’t managed to hatch any yet
Jacquelyn Dycus
Wow, what a strikingly green lizard that is. I think the possibility of competition is worth exploring, and this opens up all sorts of other questions too. Good luck with hatching your eggs!
AsaBee
Eliminating the competition for food and mating rights is completely natural, “It’s the circle of life” man.
Ludovic D
The competition is a way that have to be explore, but several species of anole lays eggs in common nest. This hypothese is not the first track for me. Another possibility would be the consumption of not-viable egg for the nutrients and calcium.
We can see an example here : http://robatwork.com/coldblood/eng/eng_anolis.htm
Melissa
I have a green anole as well; a solo female. She has laid 3 eggs in the recent weeks. We got the first egg out to try to incubate it, we didn’t do it correctly, the next 2, we saw the egg in the morning and before we could get to it in the afternoon they were gone. As mentioned in research, she has left each egg about a week / week and a half apart. The first egg, she had on the glass side of her terrarium, the second was in the mulch, the third was on her basking stick. The 2 that were on the wall/stick, had fallen before we could get to them. Any suggestions/information ?