Anole Annals

Hello AA readers! I’m writing today with a favor to ask. I’m planning to do some research on Anolis lemurinus in Costa Rica this summer, and I’m looking for potential field sites. I’ve been to La Selva Biological Station, which seems to have a healthy population, but if you know of any other localities in Costa Rica where A. lemurinus are abundant, please let me know! I’d greatly appreciate it.

Please contact me at pradoirwin [at] g.harvard.edu

Thanks!

Egret and maybe anole

We’ve come to realize, sadly, that just about everything will eat anoles. Birds are particular culprits and we’ve seen some horrifying examples of egrets downing the little green and brown fellows. Now comes a report that a whooping crane, of all things, will also indulge.

Vladimir Dinets–he of crocodilian behavior fame (check out his awesome book, Dragon Songs )–reported on dietary observations a reintroduced population of cranes in Louisiana. The anolivory represents the first instance of whooping crane predation on a lizard (but not on a squamate, as the photo above attests).

Photo by Pat Shipman

We’ve often commented on the interactions between the green anole, Anolis carolinensis, and the brown anole, Anolis sagrei. We’ve also had periodic posts from Pat Shipman on Little Cayman, who moonlights as an anthropologist and science and history writer when not watching anoles.

Here’s further evidence that greens and browns can coexist: A. maynardi (a relative of A. carolinensis) and A. sagrei side-by-side, ten feet up on a wall.

From New Scientist:

Kristin Winchell

By Carolyn Beans

City living comes with unique challenges. If you’re a lizard, scaling a windowpane without sliding off is one of them. One lizard has already evolved traits to help it do just that.

“Urban areas are just another environment. The animals that live there aren’t somehow immune to natural selection,” says Kristin Winchell of the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Her team compared males of the anole lizard (Anolis cristatellus) in the Puerto Rican cities of Mayagüez, Ponce and San Juan with those in nearby forests.

They found that city lizards regularly clung to objects like walls and windows, proving that they use the full urban environment instead of restricting themselves to wild patches more similar to their forest roots.

Compared with forest-dwellers, city lizards had longer limbs and more lamellae – scale-like structures that help their toes stick to surfaces. These traits probably enable them to stay attached to slippery urban perches. “I chased a lizard that ran straight up a window 30 feet and was out of reach in 15 seconds,” says Winchell. “I couldn’t catch this well-adapted lizard.”

The team also raised urban and forest lizards from the Mayagüez region in the lab and found that differences in limb length and scale number remained, suggesting a genetic basis to the urban lizards’ abilities.

The anole frequently wows scientists with feats of rapid evolution in natural environments. The new finding suggests that this capacity applies to cities as well.

Other urban animals also adapt. We know, for example, that birds alter calls to be heard over city noise and leafcutter ants adapt to elevated temperatures in an urban heat island.

But well-studied examples are rare. “Urban evolution is a really young field,” says Winchell.

Evolutionary biologist Jason Munshi-South of Fordham University in New York agrees. “There aren’t many documented cases of urban evolution yet, but people are going to start looking for them in earnest,” he says.

Munshi-South believes Winchell’s study is an excellent addition to this emerging field. “The next step,” he says, “which I’m excited to see them do, is to identify the genes underlying these adaptive traits.”

Winchell says that, ultimately, understanding urban adaption could help conservation. “Having a grasp on which animals tolerate urbanisation gives us a better idea of which ones we need to focus on when preserving natural habitats,” she says.

Evolution, DOI: 10.1111/evo.12925

I did a bit of herping in Luquillo on the northeast coast of Puerto Rico and the abundance of anoles and frogs  was incredible. I was hoping for help IDing these guys and any insight you might have on these species. I think the first three are the same species?

1. We found this sleeping anole perched up on the back of a sign.

2)    

3)        

4)

5) 

6) This last one was found in the Yunque, not in Luquillo. Not the best photo, but it was a beautiful anole.

Thanks again!

The Dodo provides the full details, but here’s the gist: “I was at the zoo watching the gorilla exhibit [at the San Diego Zoo], and that little lizard came up and just froze when the gorilla started playing with it. He picked it up by the tail a few times, poked at it, but never killed it.”

As Yoel Stuart reported previously in AA‘s pages, Anolis carolinensis has become established at the San Diego Zoo. Who knows which of the zoo’s denizens will be the next to adopt an anole?

and

and this tweet, in turn, refers to this post: