Category: Anole Art, Literature, and Humor Page 6 of 11

These are kind of cool. More here. Anyone got a pattern?

Who knew that anoles were porn stars?

Actress Isabella Rosselini has become even more famous in recent years for a series of short films about animal sex, entitled Green Porno. The films are wacky and educational, and in them she acts out the mating behavior of various creatures, often in graphic, albeit artistic, detail. The award-winning series has gone through three seasons and airs on the Sundance channel (for more details, see the Wikipedia entry or the Green Porno website link above).

Along with the films, a book has been produced and, most importantly to us, a website is mantained. And yesterday, June 13th, that site has seen fit to feature anoles getting it on for the second time in their last five posts (see also May 13th). Be forewarned–the site is not PG-rated!

With Richard Branson blogging on anoles two weeks ago and now Isabella delving into their private lives, it’s clear that anoles have become the lizard of choice for the rich and famous.

This paper anole is part of the exhibit “Folding Paper: The Infinite Possibilities of Origami” at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, which I visited on Tuesday (May 15). You can see an image of the full piece here and a related piece by the same artist here. It turns out that the artist, Bernie Peyton, was a graduate student with Jonathan Losos and me at UC Berkeley in the 1980s.

Editor’s Note: more on Bernie Peyton and origami anoles can be found here and here.

Andrew Stone writes:

I thought some of the contributors to Anole annals might enjoy seeing this–or at least pointing out the mistakes. It can be seen here.

I recently finished a small, multicolor woodblock print of Anolis carolinensis. It took a trip back to Florida to see the actual model but during the preparatory phase I found some useful pictures on your anole website. The print was my contribution to a “Year of the Dragon” exchange among a group of international printmakers.

I took some artistic license–a different block was carved for each color and I tried to keep the number of blocks to a minimum.

You’re welcome to include a link to the website/blog post if you think your regular contributers would enjoy seeing it.

I don’t think I’ll be doing any other anoles any time soon so didn’t wan’t to post as a contributer. If it is too off-topic don’t worry about including it. I just thought anole folks might get a lift out of seeing a layperson’s take of a small, Florida lizard.

In the link below, select the Download or Print button to download a 12 page illustrated children’s book (pre-K to early Elem.) titled: Anoles by Day and Geckos at Night in PDF format. The book is iPad compatible if loaded into your iBooks library under the PDF option. I welcome your professional feedback on content and urge you to share the story with young friends and family members.

Anoles by Day and Geckos at Night is a work in progress as I am attempting to animate the critters, add interactive elements and publish an eBook.

All things 8-bit are making a comeback. The worlds of art, technology, fashion and music all have (re)embraced the format, and I, for one, don’t want anoles to be left behind. Here’s my 8-bit take on a member of the disticus clade (bonus points on guessing which one). Drawn  in Adobe Illustrator following these instructions, you can also roll your own with a free webapp here.

Reader Mona G writes: “I like to watch anoles in my garden in the Florida Keys where they are ubiquitous. I also take photos of them. I wanted to tell a funny story about one of my photo shoots. This took place a few years before digital cameras were invented. The days of using film! I had a very large, long and heavy zoom lens. It was summertime and very hot. I sat in one spot observing a large anole doing what they do when another anole comes into their territory. He used his dewlap often and the sunlight was lighting it up making it so beautiful. It appeared to be all shades of red,yellow, orange and hot pink. It is not easy to catch that dewlap moment. So I sat sweating profusely and eventually aching from being tensed up into certain postures to get certain angles. I was so excited about the photos I was sure I would have at least 3 or 4 perfect pix out of my roll of 36. I prepared to take them directly to be processed. As I started to rewind the film back into it’s canister… something didn’t feel right. I thought “oh no. The film has gone too far and has detached from the can.” NO that was not the problem..the problem was that there was NO FILM in my %&^^&*&^%#!!! camera…I LOVE DIGITAL!! Anyone have any stories like this to share? Also about this chameleon pix..is this a pet? Or is it in nature? I hope someone enjoyed my story. I STILL take anole pix very often. They are always interesting to observe. I often leave a banana peel on a table and they come to eat the fruit flies. They seem to be familiar with me. Not tame but more relaxed in my presence as time goes by. I have also become familiar with certain lizards who live in a certain area. They definitely have there own home turf. Thanks for reading. I am attaching a recent night shot. This anole sleeps in the same area every night. I woke him up and you can see he is not very happy about it!

Previously we reported on the efforts to raise money to produce a book on endangered lacertid lizards. The fund-raising is going well, thanks to many AA readers and others. Here’s the latest:

First of all, THANK YOU to all of our backers! The big news is that we reached our Kickstarter goal yesterday, and that means one thing: We’re going to Spain!

We couldn’t have done it without every one of you. By the end of yesterday, our 199 backers had pledged a total of $15,268 — an average pledge of over $76. We’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends, family, and lots of folks we’ve never even met before!

Now that we’ve reached our “do or die” goal, we get to put all the money we’ve raised into our book, The Symbol: Wall Lizards of the Pityusic Archipelago. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make this project even better! We’ve still got 10 days left before our Kickstarter campaign is over. The initial $15,000 we’ve raised will get us to Ibiza and Formentera for 1 month of photography, allow us to lay out the book, and help us print a small initial press run for sale on the islands.

So what’s next?

We’re photographers, and that means we love to see our pictures printed — that’s why we first envisioned this project as a book! But we also realize that the world of reading is changing, and not everyone wants to carry a book around with them. So we want to develop The Symbol into an iPad app available in Apple’s App Store. Along with the basic book, we will add slideshows and short videos into this “app-book,” creating a true multimedia experience.

Building the app will cost us about another $5000. With 10 days to go, we think we can make this happen! Here’s what we can do to make it worth your while:

1) When we reach $17,500: For new and existing backers at the $25 level or above (and existing backers who increase their pledge to $25 or more), we’ll give you a beautiful PDF edition of The Symbol to read on any computer or mobile device. We’ll also make the PDF edition of the book freely availableto Ibiza and Formentera’s primary schools.

2) When we reach $20,000: We will develop the iPad edition of The Symbol: Wall Lizards of the Pityusic Archipelago — an interactive e-book enhanced with additional images and video clips. We will also donate a hard copy of The Symbol to every primary school on Ibiza and Formentera.

So what can you do? 

If you’re a backer who has pledged less than $25, increase your pledge to $25 or more to get the PDF edition of The Symbol when we reach $17,500! And help us get the word out! I know every one of our backers has a few friends who would love to support this project. Use email and social media to share the link to our campaign. Tell your friends that you made a pledge, and that they should too!

Thanks again for your incredible generosity! Once our expedition begins, we’ll be posting images and videos from the field regularly. Expect these e-updates to begin when we leave for Spain in mid-June. We’ll see you then!

All the best,

Neil Losin, Nate Dappen, and Valentin Perez-Mellado

Shedding green anole is the Photo of the Day at National Geographic.