I took a break for my birthday, and then it was a holiday, then finals, then I had to travel, but now I’m back and it’s almost a holiday again. Before another holiday I did wanna share a short anole post! I’ve also missed doing this and I’ve been thinking about what anole to do since I got to see the anole specimens at the London Natural History Museum.
I picked a festive little Cuban anole, Anolis allogus, also called the Spanish Flag anole or Bueycito anole (after a village where it can be found).
The males of this trunk-ground anole species have an SVL of ~60 mm, while females are about ~49 mm. Its distribution is sporadic but it’s found mostly in the east of Cuba. They follow the typical trunk-ground anole coloration of light or dark grey-brown tones, with striping on their tails, and marbling on their sides. Male Bueycito anoles have pale yellow dewlaps with either a center dot or lateral center stripes of bright red/red-orange. Females have smaller pale yellow dewlaps.
I think as far as anole common names go, Yellow-beard is a top 10 name, just barely, but it’s up there.
The Yellow-beard anole, Anolis gundlachi, is endemic to Puerto Rico which is so overflowing with anoles I think it’s a little bit unfair at this point. With an SVL of about 68 mm in males and 45 mm in females, these medium sized anoles live at high elevations in the forest.
Yellow-beard anoles, following that trunk-ground color scheme, are dark olive to brown with darker striping across their backs and a pale colored ventral side. Their dewlaps aren’t quite yellow but are more of a mustard-brown, and their chins have a touch of pale yellow (Yellow-chinned anole doesn’t sound as good as Yellow-beard though). Males often have tail crests!
Like many of the anoles we know and love, Yellow-beards may eat other anoles and frogs that can fit in its mouth.
Yellow-beard anoles are often parasitized by malaria, and while more research needs to be done on parasite in this anole, there are existing ones noting tail damage in infected anoles and that males are more often infected, and another noting no significant decrease in overall body condition that you can check out.
This is the everyday experience for residents of a lush neighborhood in Tampa, Florida, that have had a rogue Allison’s anole colony pop up and spread across their houses and yards. Many residents love and cherish the beautiful anoles and have been happy to share them with me. So these pictures are the result of this summer’s visits to the colony. Enjoy these beautiful anoles and the stories that come with them!
Having heard about the location, I sent letters to all the homeowners in the area, requesting permission to study the colony. Many homeowners generously allowed me to wander their properties with gates kindly opened for me.
The male above is one of the alpha males near the epicenter. Around 70-80% of the males observed were on houses, instead of trees and bushes as normally expected from an arboreal anole.
The other alpha male of the epicenter is pictured below in the next three pictures.
His territory includes the lily plants where the first anole was spotted by the homeowner in 2017. This is clearly defined as the epicenter, since the rest of the surrounding homeowners said that they did not see the A. allisoni until a year or two later.
A female, pictured above warily watching me, is less dressed to impress and more to camouflage.
One of the most common ways for invasive anoles to spread is through the plant trade. Bromeliads, lilies, and other thick shrubs are imported from Cuba or other countries in the Caribbean with anole eggs unknowingly hidden in their leaves and trunks. When the plants arrive and are placed in a lush garden, or kept at a nursery, the eggs hatch and the anoles grow and being to reproduce, starting a new non-native population.
Pictured above is one of the many new arrivals to the colony this season. Eggs are laid from April-October and hatch from May-December.
A male, pictured below, whose territory does not include any houses, but a few trees and a fence, displays and then scurries away to hide in his tree.
Before catching sight of me, he was proudly displaying himself.After noticing me he escaped into his tree.
Across the street, two anoles mate while clinging to the side of a house. You can see the drastic sexual dimorphism in this species in this picture, as well as the deep blue coloration that comes out in the males while mating or during territorial disputes.
The anoles seem to prefer properties on the block with houses that have rough stucco walls to cling to, for example the beautiful male below. Houses with smooth exterior siding are shunned by A. allisoni at this colony.
The male below is one of my personal favorites at the colony, a male with almost every color of the rainbow! I only saw him during one visit in July, and in my many visits since then, I have not once seen him. Did he leave to find a new territory? Or was he eaten by a predator? I hope to one day see him again.
Above, another alpha male surveys his territory from a branch, and after catching sight of me, decides to leap away and leave the scene.
Another blue male and a female from his territory, a few feet away.
The colony’s active season is between March and September. Outside of these months, the males have subdued colors, remain brown most of the time, and hide in nooks and crannies of the exterior of the houses.
A young male watches me as I take his picture, above. It was a great experience to find one mid-transition from juvenile to adult and see the colors coming in nicely. Sadly, I have not seen this anole either since then.
A male on the northern outskirts of the colony displays from a tree.
A male with some vivid light blue coloration peeks over the top of a fence to spy on me.
This is an interesting observation. Note the markings on this male clinging upside down to the side of a fence. Was he grabbed by a bird or bitten by a rival male? The rounded imprint close to his legs seems to give away some kind of injury.
This young one is fresh out of a shed!A vivid green female peers at me inquisitively.A juvenile popping its head out from a bush.Usually I was able to spot at least one mating pair on each of my visits.An interesting observation, this adult male with no blue, only green.A common territorial dispute.This male has proclaimed himself King of the Gutter, and basks in his territory.This male is acrobatically clinging upside down to a copper pipe.It was interesting to see the variety in the blue coloration.
Just a year ago, I believed I would have to journey to Cuba to see these exotic creatures. Little did I know I would be spending the following summer with them without leaving home!
I will return to the colony March 2022 to continue my observations. Follow me on iNaturalist as well for more anole content!
If you’re interested in seeing more Florida Allison’s anoles, please visit my Instagram @dailyanole. Don’t forget to watch my video on this colony as well!
Turns out grad school eats up a lot of your time some weeks. Who knew!
So here is a pretty cool Caribbean anole this week. Anolis acutus, the Sharp Anole is endemic to St. Croix. These anoles are tan to olive in colour. Their dewlaps are white with a large yellow-orange blotch closer to the body. Males have an average SVL of 67mm and females, about 49mm.
They are territorial and maintain hierarchies within their habitats. If an individual is removed, they become slightly agitated until the territory is taken over by a new anole or the individual returns (Ruibal & Philibosian, 1974). The adults also tend to be sedentary and have a perch height hierarchy, but exclude juveniles from occupied trees leaving them to find and occupy empty ones or live on the ground (Ruibal & Philibosian, 1974).
St Croix anoles appear to be eurythermal, meaning they have a broad temperature range (McManus & Nellis, 1973).
I almost missed that it’s been a year of #DidYouAnole!! Thank you for sticking with me and learning about these lizards!
For this super belated one year anniversary, I have both an anole and a request.
First, the anole!
Anolis rubribarbus is a trunk-ground anole from Cuba. Specifically the eastern half of the Holguín province, around the town of Sagua de Tánamo from whence it gets one of its common names. The Sagua de Tánamo anole lives in the rainforest and possibly on rocky montane habitat in its range.
It’s listed as endangered due to its very limited range.
Also known as the Cuban tiger anole, their dewlaps are yellow with orange stripes and they are tan to olive with darker vertical stripes, like a… you know… tiger.
Now for my request! I couldn’t find a lot about this anole’s ecology or natural history, so if you have worked on this species or know someone who does, please let me know!
In the meantime, here is a year in anoles from my Twitter, and from the blog!
Thank you! It means a lot to get to share these lizards with you.
It’s been a while since we’ve looked at an anole from South America, so why not go all the way over to an an anole that is probably at the highest elevation an anole species has ever been found: Anolis heterodermus, the Flat Andes anole!
Anolis heterodermus lizards are arboreal and can be found on montane elevations in Colombia and Ecuador at about 2,600 m (8,530 ft). As you can guess, living at an such an elevation should be too cold for a lizard, but the Flat Andes anole is ok with this. They have been found to have wider preferred and body temperature ranges than expected for anoles and have adapted to take advantage of the limited hours of sun that the area gets (Méndez-Galeano & Calderón-Espinosa, 2017).
These anoles are large rich green to olive lizards with males being slightly larger than females at 85.4mm and 85mm respectively. They have wide banding on their bodies and both males and females have a patch on their tails that have been observed to change from red to blue throughout the day. This patch is larger in males (Beltrán, 2019) and is another sign of sexual dimorphism in this species. Their dewlaps are pink striped.
More on Anolis heterodermus from the pages of Anole Annalshere.
From an island made up of other islands, is an anole species with lots of subspecies. Not entirely the same, but sort of.
This week’s anole is Anolis roquet, and its six subspecies. Also called the Martinique anole or savannah anole, it is endemic to the island and the subspecies are visibly different in the specific geographic regions they inhabit there. This means that much like Anolis oculatus, they are a great example of intraspecific variation. Male Martinique anoles typically have an SVL of 86mm and females are around 66mm.
The nominate subspecies (originally described) Anolis roquet roquet, can be found in wooded habitats near the penisula on the island, and is usually green in colour with spotting or stripes (in females).
Anolis roquet caracoli can also be found in similar habitat, but prefers more dense forest and is on the Caravelle Peninsula itself. Males of this subspecies have a more marbled pattern, while females have dorsal striping. Both are usually brown.
Moving to north coast, we find Anolis roquet majolgris, an olive-to-brown coloured subspecies. This anole tends to be darker; while the females also feature dorsal striping like those of the other subspecies, the males have small scattered spotted patterning and may have white blotches around their heads (Anderson et al, 2016).
Northwest, on the elevations of Mt. Pelée, is the montane subspecies, Anolis roquet summus. As its rainforest habitat would suggest, this anole is mostly a bold green. Males have a dark marbled and spotted pattern on their backs and sides and females have a chevron dorsal stripes and may have faint lateral mottled patterning.
Photo by Thomas Ackermann.
A tan to brown subspecies occupies the west coast, with males that feature a stripe pattern that most likely inspired its epithet, Anolis roquet zebrilus. The females are more drab and less boldly striped.
Last but not least is Anolis roquet salinei, the southeasternmost subspecies. These anoles are olive to yellow-green and brown. Males have black bars on their back and splotches on their heads, while females have dark mottled patterning.
Both males and females have dewlaps with the males being larger and more brightly coloured. Recently, an adult male was discovered at a port in Dominica, likely having come in with a shipment. It was captured and recorded.
Hello and welcome to my first post since officially starting as a grad student!
I think I’ve got my schedule down and we can get back to regular weekly anoles. Love that for us!
This week’s anole, Anolis gingivinus is also called the Anguilla Bank anole or Anguilla anole and is endemic to Anguilla and its satellite islands.
The Anguillan anole is reported to adapt well to anthropogenic effects on its habitat (Hailey et al, 2011) and to different niches, although its ecomorph affinities lie closest to being trunk-ground. They also seem to be abundant despite being heavily preyed on by American kestrels.
Male Anguillan anoles have an average SVL of 72mm and females have an average of 53mm. They are usually olive to greyish in colour with bright orange dewlaps, and have bold dorsal and lighter flank stripes. They also occasionally sport some green on their lower halves and males may have darker marbled spotting along their bodies. Anolis gingivinus are insectivorous but like many other anoles will eat smaller lizards.
This week’s anole, Anolis sabanus, can only be spotted on the island of Saba (Dutch W.I.).
Also called the Saban anole, this tan to pale grey coloured species is sexually dimorphic with males being covered with black spots/patches at an SVL of 29-72mm and females having a dorsal stripe and an SVL of 23-25mm. Their dewlaps are green or orange tinted.
In 2016, there was an introduction of the anole on the neighbouring island of Sint Eustatius. They belong to the bimaculatus series of anoles which includes other island endemics like Anolis oculatus (from my home island of Dominica).
Gina Zwicky, New Orleans based herper, is currently working on a study to see if there is a link between parasite pressure and the rise of immunity in generations of this anole, examining if evidence can be found of fluctuating selection in a natural population. Anoles are incredibly useful for research with their genomes being readily available for reference, how quickly they adapt and other factors. Island endemics especially are great research subjects due to their isolation which helps to eliminate certain other variables.
Upon returning to the first address, I had to search for a long time, 20-30 minutes, before finally stumbling upon one adult male A. Allisoni relaxing on the top of a fence.
I only managed to snap one picture of it in this pose before it hopped onto a palm tree on the other side of the fence. As it slowly made its way up the tree, while cautiously keeping an eye on me, I snapped a few more photos.
After this, I moved on to the next address, about 15 minutes further south in Naples. The area to search was very small, but there were several dense bushes to sift through. After a half-hour spent combing the bushes and peering into the greenery, I finally spotted another adult male A. Allisoni in the underbrush, close to the ground. Unfortunately, he was so deep in the bushes that there was no way to get a clear photo. After an extensive chase, where I scratched myself all over with pointy branches as I tried pursuing the elusive anole through the bushes, he eventually disappeared.
Defeated, I looked up and spotted a small, likely female, A. allisoni hopping from twig to twig much higher in the trees above. This one also completely disappeared as I went to take a picture, unfortunately. However, just as I was about to give up hope and leave, I spotted one final small anole climbing the trunk of a nearby tree at hip level. I crept over and quickly wrapped my arms around the tree where I last saw the anole, and, sure enough, safely snagged it!
Again, at first glance, it appears to be a green anole. But look at the ear cavity. In this observation of a male A. allisoni, the ear cavity is also more of a gash, instead of a hole. And the large scales on the snout would also imply A. allisoni. What do you think?
Join me on Instagram @dailyanole to follow my adventures!
Photo: Steve Maldonado Silvestrini, 
Photo: Erika Mitchell, 
