Category: Natural History Observations Page 12 of 34

Manuel Leal recently observed this A. stratulus in Puerto Rico licking a leaf high in the forest at El Verde. He describes his observation over at Chipojolab, and suggests that they are not drinking water, and that the behavior is very focused.

Recently in the Bahamas, we observed a female A. sagrei licking a leaf. It hadn’t rained in several days and there wasn’t any dew on the leaves. However, close inspection of the leaf after the leaf left indicated that it was covered with a sticky substance. Perhaps aphid honeydew?

A curly-tailed lizards, sans business end.

We’ve written much about the voracious depredations of curly-tailed lizards on smaller folks, so turnabout’s fair play. But who’s the culprit? Sean Giery provides all the gories over at The Abaco Scientist.

Wake up, green anoles. Spring is on the way.

We’ve had a lot of discussion of perch height in the green anole, A. carolinensis, and whether or not greens shift their habitat use downward in places where brown anoles, A. sagrei, don’t occur. AA’s man in Georgia, Janson Jones, reported last year that he often found greens very near to the ground, even on water plants. It’s a new year, things are warming up, and the greens are getting active. Janson has vowed to keep a close eye on all things anole this year, and a while back he just posted his first report over on Dust Tracks on the Web. Early reports are that the green anoles are messing with our minds again. Let’s see what happens as the summer progresses.

Periodically, AA has featured reports on finding three-legged lizards in nature (1,2). And here’s another one, briefly detained on a recent field trip to Abaco. Loss of her hindfoot doesn’t seem to be troubling her too much; heck, she’s even gravid!

Turns out that three-legged lizards pop up all the time. I’ve decided to put together a compilation of the little tricyclers. If you have any information on a three-legged lizard–a photo or more, such as measurements of mass, survival, or sprint performance–I’d love to know about it. Please contact me at jlosos@oeb.harvard.edu.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsOmFYVhS9g

The Northern House Gecko (Hemidactylus flaviviridis) is a widespread species found in human-modified habitats throughout northern and eastern India. This is probably the most common house-dwelling gecko in Kolkata, the eastern capital of India. This species is primarily insectivorous and often observed to hunt on various insects like ants, mosquitoes or cockroaches. As an altered behavior, it is also not very uncommon to find this species extending it’s food items to available edible human food products! However, there have not been many reported incidents where Northern House Geckos specialized on a certain type of human food.

The video clips here show an individual gecko that ‘waits’ for biscuits everyday almost at the same time in the evening at my home in Kolkata. This individual shows extraordinary ‘pet’ behavior and sometimes eats from my hand. This has been happening since 2011 until very recently.Sometimes the gecko goes missing for a couple of months, but reappears again when we find it waiting for a biscuit near the TV-table, its usual refuge. Though not marked,I assume it to be the same individual as it has very distinctive behavior.

Red headed agama in Florida. Photo by John Rahn.

Anole correspondent John Rahn, of Big Kahuna fame, reports that red-headed agamas are becoming established well beyond Miami. Here’s what he has to say after re-spotting an individual in a Starbucks parking lot that he had previously seen last fall: “I don’t know what he’s eating in that parking lot, but he is HUGE now. My girl at Starbucks says these are all over the place in Jupiter now. He’s survived the fairly cold weather we’ve had, this winter. He is a beauty! Saw another one, same shape, but smaller and very little color.”

AA recently discussed these guys at the Fairchild Botanical Gardens in Miami, and James Stroud suggested that they may have a big and negative effect on anoles, similar to that of curly-tailed lizards. Curlies are also in Jupiter and areas north of Miami–I wonder how these two sun-loving species get along.