A nice story–“It’s Not Easy Being Green”–pointing out that green anoless have declined as browns have invaded, a popular topic here on AA [1,2].
Category: Introduced Anoles Page 7 of 11
Yesterday, we heard a report about red-headed agamas sipping lattes at Starbucks; today, news reaches us that invasive brown anoles in Georgia are munching on Doritos Locos at Taco Bell. Read Janson Jones residential brown anole report at dust tracks on the web.
Your intrepid correspond is currently in West Palm Beach, Florida, about to embark on a meandering trip north in quest of yellow-dewlapped brown anoles and other anole curiosities (speaking of which, anyone know a good site to find A. sagrei with a lot of yellow in their dewlaps? Like half or more?). In any case, today’s curiosity occurred as I was walking through a large condo development. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something double surprising. The first surprise was that it was a knight anole–I wasn’t aware that they had spread so far from Miami, although a subsequent google search revealed that, in fact, they are not only known from West Palm, but also from considerably further to the north (see map above).
The second surprise was where the lizard was. It was on the ground. Well, from the corner of my eye, it seemed like it had hopped from the ground, but when I actually turned to look, it was on a tree trunk, about 10 cm off the ground. Still, quite low, not where you expect to find a crown-giant. Sean Giery coincidentally wrote a post about female knight anoles laying their eggs in holes on the ground, so that’s a possible explanation, though this was a little knight, more of a knightlet, at ca. 130 mm svl.
Excited by the spotting of such a noble beast, I forsook the brown anoles and began looking for the big greens. And they were remarkably abundant! In about an hour of meandering, I found 13! Some were high up in the tree, right where they should be (you can see the silhouette of one in the photo to the left), but others were much lower (photo on right), and one was on a shuffleboard court (below)! In addition, as I posted recently, evidence of terrestrial habitat use was also found post-mortem by the discovery of a two-dimensional equestris on the one-lane road running through the complex.
Site of the terrestrial knight anole spotting. A careful look will reveal that Anolis equestris isn’t the only terrestrial lizard in this habitat.
Why is it that these lizards are on the ground? Well, for one thing, this is not a forest, but a condo subdivsion. There are plenty of trees, but most have been planted and they are spaced out. Many of the knight anoles I found were in trees there were completely isolated, such as the one in the photo on the left. In other words, to get from one tree to another, or to colonize a tree in the first place, the big lizards have to move on the ground. There’s been very little work on knight anole ecology and habitat use–it would be really interesting to see how often they move from one isolated tree to another.
But these low-riding knights (in the Jansonian sense) are only half of the reason that I’ve titled this post “World Turned Upside Down.”
Read all about in Janson Jones’ latest anole post over on Dust tracks on the web and more on the ever dangerous broad-headed skinks at this recent post.
Better Janson than a brown anole
A few years ago I asked an ornithologist friend of mine what urban birds such as starlings and house sparrows ate. His answer was that it was probably a mix of bottle caps, cigarette butts, and McDonald’s French fries. I’m only partially satisfied with that answer, and so try to keep an eye on what urban birds eat wherever I go.
Since moving to Miami four years ago, I’ve observed several cases of birds consuming anoles. After watching a Common Grackle feed an anole to a fledgling a few days ago, I thought I’d compile and share these observations with AA readers.
During casual field observations at various parks in the eastern portions of south Miami, I have noticed the expansion of Anolis cybotes and Anolis cristatellus. However, I am more adept at identifying the latter species because of the dorsal crest or sail that many of the larger males exhibit. This feature seems to be absent in cybotes, which also appears to be slightly larger and stockier than cristatellus. I believe the population in Key Biscayne (Crandon Park) is cristatellus. However, there are populations at Fairchild Botanical Gardens, Matheson Hammocks Park, Dante Fascell Park, Town of Pine Crest, and a number of the areas adjacent to the Red Road Canal (Linear Park) north of Old Cutler Road in which I have difficulties with making a positive identification. At one time, over two decades ago, the population along the Red Road canal appeared to me to be cybotes; since then there are definite pockets of cristatellus and perhaps intermingling in areas. Both species appear to favor shaded, “woodsier” environments and seem to dominate this niche over the ever present sagrei which appears to be relegated to the sunnier perimeters of the parks or hardwood lots. I would be interested in knowing if anyone can identify the species simply from the photographs posted. Also, are these two species closely related enough to readily hybridize? Both Anolis cybotes and Anolis cristatellus are collected locally for the pet trade which may have aided in their dispersal.
Anolis cristatellus moving in on St. Martin. Photo by Mark Yokoyama
Mark Yokoyama has just published a review of the introduced reptiles and amphibians of St. Martin, where he lives, and there are a lot of them, including several anoles. Anolis cristatellus has apparently just arrived at some resorts and may be spreading, and A. sagrei has been there for a while. We recently discussed another article in the same issue of IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians, which reported that A. sagrei is now in the Turks and Caicos and may be interacting with a A. scriptus, a close relative of A. cristatellus. If A. sagrei and A. cristatellus become well-established on St. Martin, it will be interesting to see what happens when they come into contact. Of course, more importantly is how they will interact with the native species, A. gingivinus, which is ecologically moderately similar to these two trunk-ground anoles, and A. pogus, which is small and potentially a prey item, especially for the more robust A. cristatellus.
Yokoyama also notes of an apparently short-lived invasion of A. bimaculatus in the 90’s and an enigmatic single specimen of A. marmoratus collected a half century ago.
Anolis sagrei certainly gets around, and it’s added another locality to its ever-expanding range: the Turks and Caicos. AA contributor Joe Burgess recently published a paper in the most recent edition of IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians documenting its occurrence on the island. As we’ve come to expect, the population is quite numerous and–ominously–the native A. scriptus–itself also a trunk-ground anole–was not very common at the site. Anolis scriptus is a close relative of the Puerto Rican A. cristatellus and we’ve reported previously on these two species battling it out in Miami and Costa Rica. Stay tuned.
Firstly, let me start by offering my sincere apologies for the standard of photography you are about to view. As you AA readers have become accustomed to Jonathan’s flowing prose, and other members’ excellent use of modern photographic equipment, I must warn you not to expect either here!
As has been mentioned previously, the IBS Conference was a tremendous success, and firstly huge congratulations must be passed on to (a potential anologist in the making?) Ken Feeley for all the hard work and effort. The lack of talks concerning arguably one of the world’s most studied vertebrate biogeographic systems did not detract from the high levels of anole hunting that ensued over the course of the conference!
After a wonderful afternoon visiting Miami’s most bizarre lizard community, the following day provided an opportunity for conversations to be followed up from the previous night’s conference dinner (as some graduate students’ memories may have appeared a little hazy on Saturday morning). Much of the day was spent wandering around FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus eagerly trying to find the dozen knight anoles that were promised to us the previous night by resident expert, and thoroughly nice guy, Sean Giery.
Sean has spent the past 3 years observing the A. equestris community on this campus, and has assured me that he will bless AA readers with a synopsis of his eagerly awaited dietary analysis paper in the near future. The day started brightly, with two juveniles being found in close proximity to each other; however with just he and I as the only observers, it was tough to include these individuals in the promised dozen.
Juvenile knight anole found on a horizontal branch ~2m high. Photo by JStroud
At the start of lunch, and confronting the midday heat with the enthusiasm of schoolboys on a day trip, we regrouped with some extra eyes and headed back out to continue on our quest. Although A. sagrei, A. carolinensis and A. distichus were abundant, these were still not the target species. A loud thump behind us saw us all swivel in synchrony, like a troop of sunburnt and slightly dehydrated Michael Flatley fanatics, to be confronted by a rather startled green iguana that had just plummeted 10 feet after submissively losing a dispute to a larger male. The campus had previously been awash with a healthy population of green iguanas; however the big freeze of 2009 reduced this significantly so that the only survivors were those small enough to retreat underground.
Green anoles everywherer in All-America Park. Photo by J. Losos
The International Biogeography Society meeting over, I had part of a day on my hands before leaving Miami. Many opportunities presented themself in the herpetological magnificence that is South Florida, but I couldn’t escape the disappointment in failing to find the Jamaican crown-giant at All-America Park in South Miami two days previous. So into the rental ‘mobile I hopped and quickly traversed the Magic City.
Arriving at the postage-sized park, I immediately ran into South Miami mayor and renowned neuroethologist Philip Stoddard, who happens to live next to the park and keeps an eagle eye on all of its inhabitants. His Honor confirmed that extreme cold of the last several winters had dealt the Jamaican greens a heavy blow, but nonetheless said that he had recently seen several small individuals, indicating that the population was still extant.
A little green like this one was chased by a bark anole. How ignominious! Photo by J. Losos
After accepting a glass of water, I headed into the park on what was a sunny and beautiful day. Anoles (and also peacocks) were extraordinarily abundant, but what caught my attention was the enormous number of green anoles. Those who are concerned that A. carolinensis is disappearing as a result of the introduction of A. sagrei and others need not worry, they’re doing just fine.
Bark and brown anoles were also quite abundant (word has it that Puerto Rican crested anoles are on the move and now are only a few blocks away), and I made several interesting observations,