Male Anolis marmoratus marmoratus from the town Capesterre in Guadeloupe.
Ali versus Frazier. Athens versus Sparta. Harry Potter versus Voldemort. History has had it share of epic battles, many of which we have documented on the Anole Annals, such as here and here. In my humble opinion, however, none of those minor scuffles can measure up to a thrilling encounter I photographed between two males of Anolis marmoratus on the island of Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe.
Several posts on this blog (here and here and here) have reported interactions between birds and our favourite lizards, most of which have involved predation (but see here). Here’s a slightly different twist on the theme.
Boal (2008), in a paper in the Journal of Caribbean Ornithology, described the response of a female Antillean Crested Hummingbird on Guana Island in the British Virgin Islands to an Anolis stratulus that got too close to her nest. Anyone who has watched hummingbirds interact with each other for even a little while (particularly around hummingbird-feeders) will know how vicious they can be, and it isn’t surprising that a nesting female wouldn’t hesitate in attacking a lizard likely bigger than herself.
Spot the Antillean Crested Hummingbird
Back in September, we saw an Anolis carolinensis with a bizarre skeletal anomaly, the zig-zag tail. Several readers commented that this was quite a common trait, especially among captive lizards. I wanted to continue this theme with a curious Anolis cybotes specimen I found while CT scanning.
This image of a volume rendering of the skeleton shows a typical A. cybotes male pelvis, where the ilia articulates with the sacral vertebrae (denoted by arrow).
Now, the image below shows R186747, a male A. cybotes collected by Luke Mahler in the Dominican Republic. The lateral process of the first tail vertebrae has been adopted to form the sacrum on the left side, while the right remains standard, and the right side of the pubis appears to have an old healed fracture.
Leiocephalus macropus attempts to consume a juvenile A. jubar in southwestern Cuba. Photos copyright R. Glor 2000.
Anole Annals has a long, gut-wrenching history of posting photographs of our favorite lizards being consumed (or at least partially consumed) by other organisms, including snakes (1, 2, 3), birds (1, 2, 3), other anoles (1, 2), a frog, a spider, and even a plant. As far as I can tell, however, we have yet to post any images of anoles being eaten by one of their fiercest predators across the northern Caribbean: Curly-tailed lizards (Leiocephalus). Curly-tails are notorious anole predators and can have a profound impact on anole abundance and behavior (see for, example, Losos et al. 2004). The photos above were taken in southeastern Cuba and show Leiocepalus macropus killing and attempting to eat a juvenile Anolis jubar. Manuel Leal initially spotted the Leio plucking the young anole off a tree trunk. Although the Leio successfully killed the anole and got it part way into its mouth, it seemingly wasn’t able to swallow its intended prey (at least not until we interrupted the event).
In response to recent discussion of dead-playing anoles, AA‘s French connection Ludovic recently brought to our attention a video of an A. coelestinus doing the same, while floating in a sink.
And as an extra treat, Youtube then directed the alert viewer to a bonus track of what appears to be a fuzzy A. stratulus going to town on a slice of watermelon.
Anolis porcatus juvenile stalks a skipper butterfly (Hesperidae) in Bani, Dominican Republic. Photograph by Miguel Landestoy.
Over the past 6 weeks or so, I’ve been spending a lot of time caring for Anolis carolinensis hatchlings as part of my common garden experiment. One of the most striking things that I’ve noticed about these growing lizards is how a hatchling’s hunting behavior changes over time. Description of juvenile hunting behavior and a cool hunting video from a different species after the jump…
Grackle snacking on an anole in Florida. Photo by Andy Wilson from http://www.pbase.com/andywilson/image/60039533
Most anole watchers have experienced the phenomenon of walking up to an anole and having it display. What good could come of displaying to a potential predator thousands of times more massive? In a perceptive experiment, Leal suggested that anoles actually are trying to tell the predators something: specifically, that a displaying lizard is very fit, and that a potential predator, in this case a snake, would be better served looking elsewhere for a meal.
But there are few observations of anoles displaying to predators in nature. In a recent Natural History Note in Herpetological Review (42:427-428), Catherine Levey documents one such instance: “I observed an adult female boat-tailed grackle (Quiscalus major) on a sidewalk with an A. sagrei in its bill. The anole was approximately 7 cm snout-vent length. The bird was vigorously shaking the anole with sideways flicks of its head. After about five seconds, it put the anole down on the pavement. The anole immediately arched its back, fully extended its dewlap, and became immobile. The bird looked at it and did not move for about five seconds. It then pecked the anole several times near the head, which caused the anole to withdraw its dewlap and run. The bird pursued it and picked it up. The anole thrashed in the bird’s bill; it did not extend its dewlap. Again, the bird put it down and again it immediately displayed its dewlap. the bird paused for a few seconds, picked up the lizard by its midsection, and flew out of sight.”
This image is bouncing around the internet, and I can’t find any information on its origin, but it looks like an anole to me. Valiant last ditch effort, but I think we all know the outcome.
Need a dose of live lizard action? Why not check out the long-running series, Anole Alley, on lizardvideos.com? Now in its fourth season, with an all-star cast of green anoles (maybe browns, too–I haven’t watched all that many of them).
Episode 39, part 2, big game hunting, is linked above. It features a large male green anole snagging a dragonfly–well done! Other episodes show other anole hi-jinx and escapades. Store this one to put some sunshine into a cold, wintry day.
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