httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL8Tv5aqn5Q
We here at AA love to put up videos of anoles doing interesting things. Got a favorite? Let us know and we’ll post it.
Category: Anole Videos
We’ve been privileged to see a number of great videos of Cuban anoles recently [1,2], and here’s another, an hour-long documentary on Cuban wildlife in Spanish entitled “Cuba. La Isla Salvaje del Caribe.” It goes without saying that the anoles steal the show. There’s an excellent 2.5 minutes of anole footage beginning at the 38:46 mark, highlighted by lovely shots of a male A. allisoni and video of Chamaeleolis (also homolechis, sagrei or a close relative, a pale-dewlapped grass anole, porcatus and lucius). In addition, just before this, there’s a nice depiction of how Cuba was split into three islands when sea-levels were higher.
Anolis ricordii. Photo by Miguel Landestoy.
If a juvenile anole has a dewlap since birth, there must be a reason for it, but what is it? Juvenile hispaniolan crown giants do have them and here is a video of one using it. This Anolis ricordii was only 52.10 mm in SVL and was showing his stuff while a colleague was taking photos of it. We placed it in the tree and left it for about 10 minutes without disturbing it, after which it started dewlapping and bobbing the head. At one point, the dewlap was fully extended, but by the time I got my “pocket” camera ready, this was all it gave.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZLAvF84Ob4
Later on, another individual, which was somewhat smaller, was found on the ground on a rainy day. There must be intraspecific spatial niche partitioning, when your parents are higher up and could eat you, it must be safer to stay away. Would a dewlap also be useful mainly for “pushing” away potential competitors/predators, as A. cybotes?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-y5r5kj87M
After an early afternoon rain in western Cordillera Central of the Dominican Republic, a swarm of “flying ants” emerged from a nest on ground, most of them gathering at top of this antenna pole, attracting the attention of the neighboring community of anoles. Approximately a “platoon” of 2 dozen of A. chlorocyanus started climbing up the 7-8 meter tall pole, a few A. cybotes stayed low, and at least one A. distichus joined the feast. The lizards came from two small wooden buildings and used the wire (seen near top, at right side) and roof-to-nearest bushes jumps to access the pole. Many more came and went. Certainly, there were several males, and dewlap displays were made once in a while, but there was no time (or no real need?) for a fight this time. Some male chlorocyanus live very close to each other in those buildings (along with several females), and show notorious scars over their faces.
Editor’s Note: Here’s another video that Miguel mentioned in a comment (below):
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dxAqySnAVM
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2RXWqiHjhA
Here’s a nice video clip of a green anole (A. carolinensis) creeping along a branch and displaying. To me, it’s a nice reminder that the different ecomorphs not only live in different places, but interact with their environment in very different ways. You’d rarely see a trunk-ground anole, such as A. sagrei, behaving in this manner, but it’s quite typical for trunk-crown anoles.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bsusAavtOo&feature=youtu.be
Who wouldn’t want to see a lizard do a face plant? Apparently tens of thousands couldn’t pass this one up. It’s all part of Chi-Yun Kuo’s research in the Duncan Irschick Lab; Chi-Yun provided a first-hand account of the research when the paper was published last year.
Editor’s Correction: Chi-Yun’s paper is fabulous, but this video actually comes from Casey Gilman’s also wonderful research. See her original paper in the lab that produced this video and the recent field follow-up.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9N0sR2cPS8
(I’ve provided the Youtube link here because it can be embedded into WordPress posts, but this video and other similar ones about Haitian field work are available on Caribnature’s Haiti page)
Caribnature.org contains a series of video essays about nature, the environment and exploration in Haiti, based on fieldwork led by Blair Hedges at Penn State University. The video above gives details on a trip to a never before scientifically explored mountain range in southern Haiti where the Haitian giant twig anole, A. darlingtoni, was rediscovered 25 years after it was last seen. In addition, a number of new species of frogs were discovered. The mountain chain still contains forest and wildlife because it is far from roads and people, and thus has not been completely deforested. To get there, Hedge’s team were dropped off by a helicopter.
The website also contains links to other useful information about Haiti, as well as a beautiful poster of Haitian biodiversity, which can be requested.
Order this now for the cost of shipping and handling at Caribnature.org
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3KUK0zSnjE&feature=channel&list=UL
For those people who like to watch videos of yule logs burning in a fireplace, the tropical equivalent is this video of Puerto Rican anoles displaying. It features cristatellus, evermanni, pulchellus, krugi, stratulus and gundlachi. A second video on the Fleishman Channel has more displays. And the nice tropical bird soundtrack is very relaxing.