Doesn’t look good. Staniel and particularly Abaco are right in the path of Irene–Category III for Abaco. Hang in there, lizards and people!
Category: Anoles and Anolologists in the News Page 5 of 6
AA readers may recall a series of post this past May, in which I discussed research on anole ecology and evolution in the Bahamas. Those posts discussed studies that have been ongoing in Abaco for several years on the effect of predators (curly-tail lizards) on anoles, as well as studies initiated this year to the south in Staniel Cay.
Hurricane Irene, predicted to reach Category IV status, is now bearing down on the Bahamas from the south. And if you examine the hurricane’s track, you’ll see that she is aiming right at our study sites. What will happen? In the past 13 years, we’ve had three experiments terminated by hurricanes. Please cross your fingers, toes, and any other extremities in hopes that fourth time is a charm.
Paper accepted, proofs corrected.
Next, the movie adaptation. But who will play Green Anole?
Unidentified anole by Miguel Landestoy from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Who can name that species (not Miguel!)?
Faye Flam’s Planet of the Apes column in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer is entitled “Is Life Inevitably or Chance? Lizards May Tell.” Turns out that anoles may hold the answer to some of life’s most profound questions.
Image of Anolis darlingtoni from http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/evolution/A-Long-Lost-Lizard-is-Found-in-Haiti.html
Last week, Blair Hedges led a team of scientists, journalists and naturalists on a helicopter tour of some of the most remote forested habitats remaining on Haiti’s Tiburon Peninsula. For anole enthusiasts, this expedition’s most remarkable find was the rediscovery of Anolis darlingtoni, an enigmatic species that hasn’t been seen since 1984. As reported by Faye Flam at Philly.com, expedition member Miguel Landestoy spotted a single animal sleeping around 2m up in a tree fern. This seems to have been the only darlingtoni recovered by the expedition, but full trip details are still filtering in.
Even with this rediscovery, Anolis darlingtoni remains the rarest anole on Hispaniola, and the one that is the most immediate danger of extinction. Luke Mahler and I went to a great deal of trouble to search for A. darlingtoni in remnant forests at the western end of the Tiburon Peninsula a few years ago and came up empty, so I know that finding this species is no easy feat. My congratulations to Blair, Miguel, and the rest of the team!
Who could turn down a good looker with something upstairs, especially wearing a gorgeous shade of green? Not the Economist, which featured Leal and Powell’s study of anole cognition in this week’s edition (no, it’s not the article on the orgasmatron). See the article here.
In fact, anole-o-mania has caught on, with reports in print, online, and on radio and TV. Most recent is today’s piece in the Science Times.
According to the Life Science Log, this is among the most cited news reports in the last week. For a full list of media coverage–with more still on the way–check here.
Bonus points: who remembers the orgasmatron?
p.s. A video of the lizards problem-solving is now available on YouTube
Check it out. Read the backstory here.
The newspaper article to announce the actions to eradicate brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) in Santzepu, Sheishan District, Chiayi County, Taiwan.
On the 28th of April, 2011, I posted an article here in AA about the actions of the Taiwanese authorities to try and remove Anolis sagrei in Chiayi County. On the 25th of June, 2011, it was announced that they have acquired more funding (they ran out of funds previously) and that they will continue with these actions this year.
The alarming part is how they (whoever wrote the article) mislead the public, who believes in what is said in the newspapers, by providing incorrect information in the article.
They report that in the past two years 127,458 brown anoles were removed, and since the past winter was colder than usual, they believe they can eradicate this species by again paying the public a bounty of N.T.$ 20 (ca. U.S.$ 0.70) for every lizard they collect. I am confident they will run out of funds again, and the brown anole will persist! I am also convinced that something other than conservation is driving these actions.
“…On the first weekend of October in 2009, 125 anole biologists traveled from eight countries to Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology to attend the 6th Anolis Symposium. It had been 10 years since the previous symposium, and a reunion was long past due. In 2008, as we began to consider how to proceed with such an endeavor, a fortunate thing happened: the Herpetology Department at the MCZ renovated its library and teaching space – the famous lair of the late pater anolis, Ernest Williams. The library needed a namesake, and Ernest was under strong consideration (after all, he had been instrumental in filling its shelves!). After a brief period of friendly deliberation, it was decided that the library would be dedicated to Williams, and that the occasion would be the commencement of the 6th Anolis Symposium, held at the Museum of Comparative Zoology…” (From the preface of the Anolis Newsletter VI)
The Society for the Study of Evolution gives the R.A. Fisher Prize “for an outstanding Ph.D. dissertation paper published in the journal Evolution during a given calendar year.” This year’s awardee is Luke Mahler, for the paper, which appeared on the cover of the Sept, 2010 issue of Evolution: Mahler, D.L., L.J. Revell, R.E. Glor, and J.B. Losos. 2010. Ecological opportunity and the rate of morphological evolution in the diversification of Greater Antillean anoles. Evolution 64:2731-2745.
The Fisher Prize is relatively young, but already boasts an impressive list of past winners, to which Mahler is a worthy addition:
2006 Maurine Neiman
2007 Guillaume Martin
2008 R. Brian Langerhans
2009 Megan Higgie
2010 Britt Koskella
2011 D. Luke Mahler