Category: Natural History Observations Page 19 of 34

John Rahn regaled us with tales of the Big Kahuna, his big backyard sagrei (a must read, if you don’t recall it). Here’s some more. First, he’s seen BK stand like this for quite a while. I have also seen anoles do the same. I wonder what’s up. Maybe they’re into yoga? A new pose–Sideways Lizard?

And here’s another photo. John writes: “I’ve noticed that when they catch/eat something, they rub their faces(?), or their catch on the concrete, like he’s doing here. What’s that all about?” Indeed, what is that all about? I’ve seen it, too. Are they using the ground as their own personal napkin? But then why do it to prey items, too? Thoughts?

Editor’s note: check out this video, referred to in the comment below by reader Beachton

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/1986146]

Some previous posts on Anole Annals have stimulated excellent discussions regarding the care of Anolis eggs in a laboratory setting.  To this, I’d like to share a few tips as a hobbyist who has successfully incubated A. carolinensis eggs outside the laboratory for many years.

A month before breeding season, I place a small organic (fertilizer-free) potted basil plant in each cage.  This plant is watered weekly to keep the soil moist enough to prevent egg dessication without making the soil too heavy for easy digging.  Every few days, I comb through the soil with my fingers to check for eggs.

An A. carolinensis digging a hole to bury her egg

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Photo by Tony Gamble.

We at Anole Annals are a little obsessed with what’s going on between anoles and those anole-wannabees, the day geckos, in Hawaii. Really, someone’s gotta’ study this. Here’s a photo kindly provided by Tony Gamble demonstrating beyond a shadow of a doubt that the two species coexist. Here’s Tony’s take on whether the species interact:

Photo by Tony Gamble

“I didn’t see too many interactions between geckos and anoles. I would see large male anoles walk around and display in places loaded with day geckos. The geckos would certainly get out of the way of the brutish anoles but I did not observe anoles actually chasing or attacking geckos. Both species seem to be far more concerned with intraspecific interactions (attached photo on left shows a male Anolis eyeing the female on the other side of the fence). In some places they co-occurred at incredibly high densities (see photo below the fold) and given the abundance of roaches and spiders food does not seem like its a limiting factor. In Kona, which is fairly dry, anoles tend to be found only in areas that are irrigated (e.g. gardens, hotels, strip malls). Day geckos are more abundant in those places but can be found almost everywhere – even away from developed areas. It is possible interspecific interactions are different on more mesic parts of the big island and on other islands where more area is open to anoles. This is certainly an experiment in progress – we just need to find some time to observe it.”

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From http://www.thedrillpress.com/tex/2008-11-01/tex-2008-11-01-splinter-bgreenwood-04.shtml

AA reader Jim Jackson writes:

“I would like to suggest a topic for a post on Anole Annals:  Has anyone besides me observed a collapse in “their” local A. carolinensis population?  I live near Tallahassee, Florida, and have always had a large population of Green Anoles on my property; during September, 2011, there were at least 30 individuals around my house and on shrubs and small trees in the yard.  Even in May, 2012, there were a dozen.  Yesterday around noon I found an emaciated hatchling under a cover object.  Very odd.  I searched the property for active anoles and found none.

There has been a moderate drought here since 2010, and the larger-bodied flying insects (bees/butterflies) on flowers seem less abundant than in 2009.  Reduced food resources could explain a population decline, but the drastic change on my one acre seems hard to attribute solely to starvation.  There are no sagrei on my property.”

Anyone got any thoughts?

A few weeks ago, we collected the common grass-bush anole Anolis pulchellus around the El Verde Field Station for an enclosure experiment looking at interspecific interactions. We stored the lizards in baggies in the lab for a day or two, moved them to their enclosures for just under three weeks, and we’ve recently finished recapturing them from the enclosures. After measuring their growth and sampling their diets, we put them back where we found them so they could continue on their way with a great story to tell their friends.

One unlucky anole, however, never made it to its enclosure. When I retrieved its bag to take to the experiment site I found the following tragic scene:

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Anolis fraseri. Photo by pbertner.

We recently had a post on the rediscovery of the horned anole of Ecuador, Anolis proboscis, which is found only in the environs of Mindo, Ecuador. Mindo is a lovely spot whose economy is strongly focused on ecotourism, but in a very rustic, old school way, making it a delightful place to visit, even more so because of its anoles. The horned anole, of course, is the star, but there are several others there as well, such as the crown-giant A. fraseri  and the incredibly common A. gemmosus, which can be found sleeping in high numbers, yet is hard to find during the day.

A sleeping gem. Photo by Jonathan Losos

The Tropical Herpetology website has a series of pages on the reptiles and amphibians of Mindo, which includes a list of all species as well as specific pages on some of the species, including A. proboscis, A. fraseri, and A. gemmosus. The site also has wonderful photographs. This is not the first post on the Tropical Herpetology website–we covered their pages on the species at Chical, near the Ecuador-Colombia border, last October. It’s a great site.

You might think this picture was taken in New Hampshire, but these are the pine forests of Valle Nuevo National Park, where Anolis shrevei is found

There are many chilling realities associated with global warming. One of the major lines of research in climate change is to understand how organisms will respond to increasing temperatures. Ectotherms such as reptiles are excellent model systems for learning how organisms will be affected by climate warming as their performance (running, jumping, etc.) is so tightly linked to temperature. Research by Ray Huey and colleagues, for example, has shown that increasing temperatures is pushing some lizards to their thermal limits, leading scientists to suggest that some lizards might not be able to take the increase in heat that is expected over the next few decades.

But spending three years working at high elevation in the Dominican Republic has made me wonder a different question – Can lizards take the cold? Beginning around 1,700 meters or so in the DR you begin to enter a strange habitat. At these high elevations the habitat is composed of pine forests that are reminiscent of New Hampshire, and require that you remind yourself that you are, indeed, still in the Caribbean. It is cold up there – near Valle Nuevo in the Eastern Mountains and near Loma de Toro in the Western Mountains the mean winter temperature hovers just above freezing. Even in summer the nights are cold and the crepuscular hours tangibly chilly.

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