Here’s another highlight from the collection of videos that the Glor Lab recorded during an expedition in the summer of 2010 (see our previously posted videos of a fight, color change, and mating). This video is an interaction between a male Anolis distichus and a caterpillar. This interaction left one of the participants with a good meal and the other, well, let’s just say he’s a part of the circle of life.
Author: Audrey Kelly
A copy of the toe clipping scheme resides inside the egg log as a quick reference when clipping or ID-ing babies.
In a recent post on marking methods for field studies, Yoel made mention of the technique we use here in the lab: toe clipping. It is true, as Yoel stated, that this is not an ideal method for lizards in field studies due to the difficulty of identifying the numbers from afar and the chance loss of toes in a rough lizard life. However, for the purposes of the lab, toe clipping has proven to be an easy and effective method of identification. After looking into a few schemes used by other researchers, I settled on a pattern that allows for numbers 0-1999 and involves clipping at most two toes on each foot. With such high egg production over the past year in the lab, it is looking like the next round of breeding will require an adjustment to allow for numbers 0-9999, but the original scheme is serving its purpose for the moment.
A highly technologically advanced egg-laying location: a used bulk-size yogurt container (generously donated by various staff in the department) filled with moist vermiculite. In this case the lid is removed so that you can see the vermiculite inside.
While Anolis distichus may have plenty of options for where to lay eggs in the field, we needed to do a bit of experimentation before landing on a good place for them to lay their eggs in the laboratory environment. Other anole facilities tend to allow their lizards to lay eggs in the soil of potted plants, and we originally had our lizards laying in the soil substrate of their cages. However, eggs that spend time in soil tend to desiccate quickly, sometimes even before they’re discovered. Given that we knew our production would be limited, we wanted to avoid this risk during our breeding experiments. We arrived at a solution that is a combination of breakfast and gardening: yogurt cups filled with moist vermiculite.
In the summer of 2010, one of the Glor Lab field teams gathered video of Anolis distichus displays as part of a project to quantify display diversity across the Dominican Republic. A video of a fight from this expedition was posted on Anole Annals and some great color changes from the same trip were posted on the Glor Lab’s blog a few months back. Another exciting action that was caught on video a few times throughout the trip was a little bit of the hanky panky. Generally, the male performed a set of pushups after which he chased and contacted the female. The two then performed some pushups together, followed by a few minutes of copulation in a leg-wrap. Copulation was followed by more pushups from the male. The video above shows an example of this typical sequence of events. Viewer discretion is advised.