Category: Notes from the Field Page 15 of 22

In a recent post, Alison Devan reported the presence of the brown anole, A. sagrei, in Savannah, GA. That prompted AA to inquire on the HerpGuide Facebook page where else the brown anole has been seen in the southeastern U.S., other than Florida and Louisiana. You can see for yourself the responses above, to which I can add a lawyer’s office in Boston and a plane out of Denver. Anyone else seen sagrei getting about? Any predictions how far it’ll spread (see this recent post for a distribution map of sagrei in the southeast today)?

By the way, the HerpGuide FB page is a place for people to post herp photos to be identified, as well as other herp related items. Worth joining.

Scantlebags being used in the field.

When in the field, we often need to temporarily house many animals from multiple localities for a short period of time.  While doing this, we need to keep animals healthy and track collection sites during transportation.  Anole researchers have used a variety of techniques to bag and sort captured anoles and often  rely on commercial reptile bags, pillow cases or plastic bags.

Thanks to the ingenuity of Dan Scantlebury and his mother, the Glor Lab has another solution: Scantlebags.  Scantlebags are individually manufactured in Stone Mountain, GA to our precise specifications.  They are made from white ripstop cloth material that is machine washable.  By making our bags from white fabric we can also write specimen data directly on the bag with a sharpie.  Each Scantlebag has a zipper closure, allowing easy access to captured animals without completely opening the bag.  You’ll have to trust us when we say that dealing with zippers is much easier than trying to constantly tie and untie pillow cases.  Scantlebags come in sizes ranging from a few square inches (for small anoles and Sphaeros), up to bags that are about the size of a typical pillowcase (which can temporarily accomodate ~20 small anoles). Finally, each bag has a webbing strap in one corner which allows Scantlebags to be tied to a belt, where they are easily accessible but secure from accidental loss.  The strap is at the opposite end of the bag from the zipper opening because the anoles we work with tend to aggregate at the top of the bag and are less likely to escape when the bag is opened from the bottom.

How does everyone else secure animals in the field? Any ideas for Scantlebag improvements?  Let us know in the comments.

Initially skeptical of my ambitions, a group of security guards celebrate the capture of a massive Anolis baleatus.

Part of any field-based research program are the random, unimagined discoveries that develop into fascinating side projects. (I’m sure that statement made my advisor’s blood pressure swell a tad).  One such “discovery” I’ve been a part of during my adventures in the Dominican Republic are the existence of maggot infestations inside the mouths of crown giant anoles.  Another crucial component to field research are the memories you take home with you – I mean the ones you’re not even sure you believe yourself when you tell your friends and family because they are just too random, bizarre and wonderful to be possible.  And that January night when Miguel Landestoy, Anthony Geneva, and I first glimpsed these writhing maggots in the mouths of giant anoles certainly qualifies…  (Cliff notes: Cipro and solenodon).

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Miguel Landestoy's "Tank"

Hello everyone!  My name is Asa Conover, I am a student at Stuyvesant High School in New York, and this is my first post on AA. This summer I accompanied Martha Muñoz and Maureen Stimola on their trip to the Dominican Republic to investigate thermoregulation at different altitudes.  I did elementary fieldwork with anoles when I was 8. On a family trip to Naples, Florida, I caught a bunch with my hands. I was too sad to part with them when we left so my dad permitted me to take a few home (I apologize to any who frown upon this). At home we set up a proper terrarium with a small tree and a heat lamp. Shortly afterwards, as we were replacing the mulch, we found an egg. This was the first of many. The anoles bred rapidly and before they became too many to handle, we sent them all back to Florida with a neighbor.

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Saludos desede la República Dominicana!

Male Anolis fowleri

I’m just past the middle of a 6 week trip to the eastern half of Hispaniola to collect specimens and ecological data for geckos of the genus Sphaerodactylus as part of my thesis work.  I’m here for the most part with photographer, naturalist, and fellow adventurer Miguel Landestoy.  We’ve had a number of ups and downs already and I figured it is time to share some photos from one of our first nigths in the field when we stumbled upon a honey hole of rare anoles. Since Anolis fowleri is such a rarely seen and poorly known beast, here are some photos of a pair and their habitat. (sorry to keep this post short, but I’m here for geckos after all and am completely exhausted)

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