Green Anole Attracted by Violin Playing?

Green anole at the window. Listening to violin?

Dr. Phillip Smith of Georgia wrote to Anole Annals:

“For the past several days one of my anole friends has appeared at my back door windows at about 12:30 PM.  I have studied and played violin as a pastime since about 1947, and play a bit every day. I had happened to choose that time on the first day and after a few minutes my attention was drawn to this little guy poking his nose farther and farther in a jabbing way into the window as he “moon-walked” along the side of each pane.  He had glided down to the bottom of the door window when I really began to watch, and it was so in synch with the music that I kept playing for a bit.  

He kept up his activity, sometimes appearing almost completely, always making a rocking, jabbing movement with his body, gradually moving to his right and the other side of the window.  When he got there he really took off upward with his head always extending onto the glass and “slid” to nearly the top of the door, then gradually worked back down.  By then I had been watching for several minutes, and realized this was no accident (or at least so I projected).  

I got my iPhone and began to try to capture his activity.  Of course this meant the music stopped, and the activity diminished pretty quickly.  When this became obvious I hustled back to my violin and began to play.  Within a very short time he was back at it, and he stayed for at least a half hour.

The door opens on a small slab, about ten feet square as is common in condos, with grass around its two sides and a shed along the left side.  I have quite a few large potted plants including a nine-foot yellow pine and a climbing rose on my back fence, many of which have been there for years.  The eave overhangs the back wall and door until about 1:30 at this time of year, so is shaded when he comes, and he has come for several days in a row, always with similar interaction.  I don’t even know how or what anoles (If he is indeed one) hear and was a little surprised he could hear through the glass, but then it occurred to me he might be sensing the vibration through his feet.  

I am a retired physician and very interested in this phenomenon, and experienced enough in scientific literature to know it would take me “forever” to ferret out information truly relevant to this interaction and my little friend, which is why I thought to contact you in this way.”

Dr. Smith then provided two videos, which he describes (see videos at bottom):

“The “screen” for the interaction is a French door with five apparent panes of glass, facing due west with a shading, overhanging eave above it, which becomes sun-exposed at about 2:20 PM.  The videos and photos were all taken in the period after 11 AM, when the anole appeared only once—all other “visits” were between 12:50 and 1:30.  

Sadly the reason the anole attracted my attention on the first interaction was that he/she moved very actively around the lower 1/3 of the door glass frequently making jabbing, bobbing up and down movements along the bottom and once “moon-walking” almost all the way up the left side and back down.  These movements were almost continuous for more than 30 minutes, and did not suggest hunting.  But because I could not photograph this and play the music at the same time, and I had not previously used the “selfie stick” I had, the later videos don’t show much of this.  

There are periods of activity and some fairly long periods of simply “freezing” in place, sometimes off the edge of the glass out of view.  

In the longer video I couldn’t get both the very top and bottom of the glass in the frame where I could anchor the camera stand, and the anole really doesn’t appear until just after 5 minutes.  From the start his primary attention seems to be the insect life on the outside of the door.  He moves up and down the right side of the glass often looking toward the middle of the door and from time to time scratching his head with his back foot (I think usually his left) as @ 16 minutes 59 seconds.  

There is a fairly active section from 23:30 to the end of this video, especially a dart downward to nail a bug @ 27:09.

The overall impression of the 11 and a half minute video is similar. The anole is present from the beginning with movements up and down from one pane to another, and his intent seems to be to get something to eat.  

I don’t think there is a particularly convincing relation of his movements to the music in either of these.”

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Jonathan Losos

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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