Photo: Manuel Leal
Hi!
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.
Photo: Brett, iNaturalist
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).
Photo: nolafrog, iNaturalist