Tag: #Didyouanole Page 3 of 5

#DidYouAnole – Anolis equestris

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On February 12, 2021

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Photo by Karl Guyton II

Hi!

Welcome back. I lost a family member and took a break, but I’m back now and thank you for coming back.

I picked the Cuban Knight Anole for today because there’s just so much anole to love.

Anolis equestris are crown-giant anoles and the largest known species of anole with an SVL of 10-20 cm in males and 9-17 cm in females. Their tails can be about twice their body length. They are territorial and will gape and display at perceived threats, while raising its body.

Cuban Knight anoles are native to Cuba, but have since been introduced to places like Turks and Caicos, Florida, Hawaii and the Canary Islands.


Photo by Ultra Violet

These large anoles eat pretty much whatever they want to, including the usual anole fare like insects, nectar, other smaller lizards, and fruit and plant matter. They are actually able to pass on viable seeds! Cuban Knights have also been seen eating other animals that are smaller than themselves, like birds, scorpions, and frogs.


Photo by Paul Richards

Both males and females have dewlaps, which for this species have no pattern and are pale pink. There are 11 subspecies of the Cuban Knight anole, including A. equestris poitor, also called the Blue Beauty for its blue colouring that becomes more prominent and overt in its dark phase. These are only found in Cayo Santa María, an island off Cuba’s north central coast.


Photo by Jesús Reina Carvajal

Thanks for reading!

Here’s a video of a female digging a possible nesting site for your time.

#DidYouAnole – Anolis agassizi

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On January 14, 2021

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Hey there!
I’ve been wanting to do this anole for a while so I’m kind of excited. These posts keep me going sometimes when the news is rough. I hope anoles bring you some respite as well.

Anolis agassizi is an anole that is endemic to Malpelo Island (off the coast of Colombia).

The island has rocky terrain and no vegetation, and the anoles are not territorial, and will willingly overlap or share perches and food sources. The insects that they eat are mainly beetles that are attracted to the colonies of birds that nest there. They also seem to have an attraction to the colour orange.

Anolis agassizi males have an average SVL of 105.4 mm, and females at 85.2 mm. They are mainly predated on by the Malpelo (or Dotted) galliwasp and seabirds.

Large males have large nuchal crests that are permanently erect, unlike other anoles. The small morphs of the male anoles also differ in colour, having spotted heads like the females do. All males have very small dewlaps.


Photo by Daniel Vásquez-Restrepo, iNaturalist

#DidYouAnole – Anolis bartschi

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On January 8, 2021

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Happy New Year!

I know this year has been off to… a start.
A lot has happened, and while someone else would avoid “getting political” in their scicomm, I think we should acknowledge that science is political. Voting was only one step to making America better, and that was threatened by people who want to continue to perpetuate racism and white supremacy. We all saw what happened. There’s no way that anyone calling the people who stormed a government building during an election process are patriots. There’s so much work to do, more than reading a book or following more Black scientists on social media. While those are good, being anti-racist and standing up against people who would seek to uphold these structures are continuous processes. I hope this new year brings you renewed resolve to be allies.

Now. Here’s to a good anole to start the year with.

Anolis bartschi, also known as the Western Cliff anole and West Cuban anole, is beautiful and peculiar.

Found in the Pinar del Rio, the westernmost province of Cuba, this anole lives on karstic (a type of limestone topography) hills, equipped with long hindlimbs and toes that help it get around the terrain. It can be found on the rock faces, cliffs, rock piles and in crevices.

It is one of two (known) anoles that completely lack a dewlap, but it does inflate its throat as a display, along with the usual anole head bobs. They are also one of the few species with communal nests, with the females laying their eggs in crevices on the sides and walls of caves. Female Western Cliff anoles can get up to 6.4 cm long (SVL) and the males about 7.5cm. They are also one of the few anoles with blue colouring.

Checking another box for uncommon anole behaviour, Western Cliff anoles squeak (Rodríguez Schettino et al.,1999)! And they may hang from their forelimbs, and walk with their toes raised. An individual may eat smaller anoles than themselves.

Western Cliff anoles are considered at a low extinction risk.

Like many anoles, we are still learning about more this anole and I can’t wait to find out more.

 

Photos by Shea Lambert and Yasel Alfonso

#DidYouAnole – Anolis homolechis

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On December 31, 2020

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Photo by Christian Grenier, iNaturalist

Hello!

I hope you’ve been having a great holiday and that 2021 will be a great year for you. And what better way to end the year than with an anole?

Anolis homolechis, the Cuban White-fanned or Habana anole, is a trunk-ground anole native to Cuba. It is very similar in appearance to the Brown anole (Anolis sagrei), but, as the name suggests, has a stark white dewlap that may have light grey large stripes.


Photo by Alex Alfil, iNaturalist

White-fanned anoles are sympatric with Brown anoles; however they partition by temperature, with Brown anoles preferring hotter areas. White-fanned anoles can be found in the shade and can occur at higher elevations than Brown anoles as well (Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree, 2009).

Female Habana anoles have a very small dewlap, almost identical to the males, but with smaller, darker striping.

Photo by Wayne Fiddler, iNaturalist

Photo by Wayne Fiddler, iNaturalist

I hope you like this anole and happy New Year, friends! Thank you so much for a great, anole-filled year!

#DidYouAnole – Anolis distichus

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On December 10, 2020

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Photo by Jake Scott, iNaturalist

Hello again!

Hope you all are doing great. I just finished my finals and two applications to PhD programs (so far) so fingers crossed for me???

I wanna talk about another (mostly) brown-coloured anole today since I feel like there’s not enough appreciation for them.

Anolis distichus, the Bark Anole, is a trunk anole with about 16 subspecies, that ranges in colour from brown to grey to green. Their dewlaps also vary in colour and pattern with their population. Males and females look the same, but in this species only males have a dewlap.

Found in Haiti, Dominican Republic, central Bahamas and, of course, Florida, these anoles can be found in range of habitats. Bark anoles are kind of on the small side at about 127mm in length.

My favourite thing about the Bark Anole is the patterning that gives it its name. The striping mimics the roughness and shapes found in tree bark, making it kind of invisible sometimes. Quite an example of perfect camouflage.

Photo by alyssa_marker16, iNaturalist
Photo by alyssa_marker16, iNaturalist

There’s been a lot of research on the anole, particularly looking into its subspecies and if any of them are their own species. Currently, this doesn’t seem to be the case quite yet.

Maybe. There’s a lot of conversation about just how much variation there is or isn’t with this species.


Photo by djhiker, iNaturalist

#DidYouAnole – Anolis sagrei

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On December 3, 2020

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Photo by Alan Franck, iNaturalist

Hey!

Since we had some questions about tail curling in Brown Anoles last week, I figured we should just talk about them today!

Anolis sagrei, or the Brown Anole or Bahaman Anole, is a trunk-ground anole whose range originally included islands like the Bahamas, Cuba, and the Cayman Islands. Brown Anoles are great stowaways and have now made it to the mainland US, other Caribbean islands and Pacific islands like Hawaii.

Brown Anoles can get up to 8.5 inches long (including their tail), and have a snout-to-vent length of about 55-60mm. They are, as their name suggests, often brown, but may also be grey. Despite the drab colouring, these anoles have a lot of variation in their patterns between individuals, with some almost looking plain and others appearing very striking with an array of spots, striping and marbling. Brown anole’s dewlaps are typically red-orange with a yellow border, but there are some who have splotches of yellow.

Since the introduction of another brown coloured anole, Anolis cristatellus (the Crested Anole), the two may be confused, but Brown anoles can be differentiated from them by the dewlap colouring (Crested anoles have opposite dewlap colours, typically yellow with a usually large border of orange), and if you can get close enough, by the presence or absence of light coloured ring around the eye or front limb stripe. Brown anoles don’t have this ring, but instead have dark eye bars (I like to think  of it as winged eyeliner, that’s just how it registers the fastest in my mind). They also don’t have a light stripe above their front limb. Female Crested anoles have only a cream-coloured stripe down their backs that Brown anole females might have between diamond or bar patterning.

As we all may know ,they’re also very feisty anoles, going after questionable prey and prey larger than themselves. They are also one of several anoles that eat other anoles (and other lizards)!


Photo by Gecko Girl Chloe, iNaturalist

In the pet trade, Brown anoles with red/orange colouring are called Flame morphs, and lucky for you here’s a study on why that red might be showing up.


Photo by Sam Kieschnick, iNaturalist

I also get a lot of questions on Brown and Green anole interactions, typically about why Brown anoles are killing off Green anoles and here’s some posts to help answer that!

#DidYouAnole – Curly-tailed Anoles

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On November 27, 2020

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Photo by Steven Kurniawidjaja, iNaturalist

Hello! Hope you had a good Thursday!

I moved #DidYouAnole and shortened it for this week because of the holiday. We aren’t talking about one specific anole (or lizard) today, but just ideas on an observed behaviour.

Recently someone posted a picture of curly-tailed Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei) noting that they had been seeing this recently with the brown anoles in their area.

This intensity of tail curling, while typical of curly-tailed lizards (they’re named for it!), isn’t all too uncommon in anoles. For curly-tailed lizards, their tail curl is possibly used as part of anti-predator behaviour, meaning it helps them distract a predator away from their bodies, or makes them look bigger. Anoles also use their tails in a similar way, waving them during aggressive displays against other males and predators.


Photo by Bill Lucas, iNaturalist

Lizards use their tail in various kinds of signaling and tail curling is one that we have been observing but don’t quite know a lot about yet! Has anyone else observed this or have any ideas about tail curling behaviour?

#DidYouAnole – Anolis proboscis

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On November 19, 2020

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Photo by Osoandino, iNaturalist

This week’s anole is one of three recorded species of anoles with a proboscis, the Pinocchio Anole, or Ecuadorian Horned Anole. The other two proboscid species being Anolis phyllorhinus and Anolis laevis.

Anolis proboscis has been featured on this website several times and is well loved here, so you may already know that only the males have the proboscis.
They are capable of raising and lowering their appendages and use it for attracting mates. They move their heads side to side in displays referred to as ‘proboscis flourishing’ (Quirola et al. 2017). Males also stimulate females during courtship, by rubbing the nape of their necks with the appendage. The horn can’t be used as a weapon for fighting other males as it is very flexible, capable of folding right over (Losos et al. 2012), but they display their horns during these interactions, raising them, most likely to appear larger and more intimidating to the rival male. Their dewlaps are small, which is common in anoles with other physical signals, but more research is needed into the uses of the appendage to further confirm its uses.


Female Pinocchio Anole, photo by Nelson Apolo, iNaturalist

The Pinocchio Anole males, unlike other proboscid anoles, are born with a small horn. Why do they have the horn so early? We don’t know… yet!

This anole is very hard to find, actually even being assumed extinct after going unseen by locals and visiting scientists alike, after specimens were collected in 1966, until accidentally being spotted by a birdwatching group in 2005 when a male crossed the road. They typically prefer dense vegetation but on occasion may be found active on the ground. Pinocchio Anoles are endangered, and only found in the protected forest reserves that make up their range in Ecuador, where they are endemic.

#DidYouAnole – Anolis maculiventris

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On November 12, 2020

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Some people think that the anoles with brown colouring and patterns are too drab or boring but honestly I appreciate their ability to blend in almost seamlessly to their habitats. The Blotchbelly Anole is another one of those, usually brown, sometimes with light patterning or a tan line down its back.

The males have a unique burnt sienna coloured dewlap, while the females of this species have no dewlap. Blotchbelly anoles appear to be twig anoles and they inhabit lowland forests in Ecuador and Colombia.

The anole gets its name due to the spotting (but not blotches) on its belly. Female Blotchbelly Anoles may be slightly larger than the males with a recorded length of 124-140 mm (Arteaga 2013), and the males at 120-129 mm.

#DidYouAnole? – Anolis lyra

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On November 5, 2020

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Photo by Andreas Kay, Flickr

Found from northwestern Ecuador to central Colombia, Anolis lyra is a trunk anole that gets its name (Lyre Anole) from the lyre shape on the back of its head.

Photo by Danny Rosero, iNaturalist

As it is sympatric with several other Ecuadorean anoles, it helps that this one has distinct features, like the marking on its head and its very distinct dewlap that is red in males with a dark central spot, and grey-white in females (also with the spot). They have an SVL of about 77mm (males) and 73mm (females).

Photo by Fabio Cianferoni, iNaturalist

The Lyre Anole is near threatened and affected by habitat loss from deforestation.

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