The Florida green anole, Anolis carolinensis, is a trunk-crown anole, usually seen on trees, often high up. So, what’s it doing on grasses low down? Alberto Estrada, an expert on Cuban lizards, reports the following:

It caught my attention to observe several specimens of A. carolinensis (smaller than the one in the photo above) posted on the spikes of the tall grass spikes on the lake shore at Miramar Pineland Park near Pembroke Pines, Broward, FL (25.97 ° N, -80.25W °). In my experience in Cuba with his close relatives A. porcatus and A. allisoni, I do not remember having seen them in such situations. They reminded me of the typical grass anoles such as A. pulchellus from Puerto Rico. As much as I searched, I did not find adults. In Tree Tops Park (26.07ºN, -80.28°W), if I have seen adults on the planks of the platform in the swamp and I have seen juveniles or subadults like the one the photo below in the reeds and on grasses that stand out from the water. I lived and worked for many years in the Ciénaga de Zapata, I had many experiences in marshy environments in the keys that surround Cuba, and I do not remember a single case of seeing the green anoles of Cuba in the same situation. Interesting experience!

In turn, this reminds me of observations I made of Anolis allisoni on Roatan, as evident in the photo below:

Caption from original post: You thought I was kidding about the Roatan allisoni doing their best grass anole imitation? See how many you find in this photo. There are at least five, but maybe I missed some.

It’s been too long since we’ve discussed that pointy-snouted marvel, the Little Cayman anole. Fortunately, Flicker, the bimonthly magazine of the Terrestrial Resources Unit of the Department of the Environment of the Cayman Islands, has ended the drought, featuring a new research project on one of our favorite species in its most recent issue.

For those of you who can’t get enough of Anolis maynardi, check out some previous AA  posts [1, 2, 3]. For more, just type “maynardi” into the search bar to the right.

We saw the brown anole jumping into the water in part I, now we see the gory, but delicious, aftermath!

Photo by John Karges

We’ve seen this before. Anoles are, alas, no match for these large and wily marauders. John Karges provides the story: “The egret was flying down the riparian woodland corridor over a side channel, and abruptly landed in the mid-story thicket overhanging the stream and immediately began a stalk. It lunge-grabbed the anole, and very quickly devoured the adult anole in a matter of seconds.”

And here’s where it went down: 2 Oct 2016 San Antonio Mission NHP, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

And the inevitable outcome.

Photo by John Karges

From the September 28, 2017 edition of The Royal Gazette, the daily newspaper of Bermuda.

AA reader Jonathan McFarland sent in these disturbing photos with the following remarks:

“I hope you can shed some light on what’s happening to the wild anoles in my Louisiana suburban yard. This week I have found two adolescents with both eyes bleeding or infected. The attached pictures show only one side of the specimens but in each case both eyes appeared as shown. Any info you could provide would be much appreciated.”

Thoughts, anyone?

Photo by Joel Sartore

The knight anole is really getting around these days: Turks & Caicos, Grand Bahama, Grand Cayman and many other islands. Now they’ve  made it to Abaco, Bahamas, where one individual was captured and possibly two others seen (see article in IRCF Reptiles and Amphibians). Abaco Scientist has an insightful discussion of introduced reptiles and amphibians on Abaco.

Photo from Daffodil’s Photo Blog

Photo from Daffodil’s Photo Blog

Photo-chronicler of Floridian natural history Karen Cusick has done it again. We’ve been captivated by her backyard photos before, but here’s photo of a female green anole with sand on its snout. Been digging holes to bury her eggs, maybe? And while Karen observed the little lady lizard, it suddenly darted into the bushed and emerged with a meal!