Juan Salvador Mendoza R.
Fundación Kamajorú para la conservación y educación ambiental, Barranquilla, Colombia.
I first became interested in arboreal lizards while working on a conservation program that took place in Corrales de San Luis, a “vereda” located in the Municipality of Tubará , department of Atlántico; Colombian Caribbean. One day with my friend Camilo Senior, while performing a day herp search through a permanent transect, he told me: “Just right from here I saw a green lizard that was feeding on termites very high in a Ceiba blanca tree (Hura crepitans).” I had been working in this locality for about four years and had never before spotted something like the lizard he was describing, so we went back to the tree and tried to take a good picture, but it was just too high for a good I.D. (Fig. 1). Those who recognize ceiba blanca´s spiny bark will know why climbing could not be an option.
Figure 1. Anolis biporcatus perched on the top of a Hura crepitans (Euphorbiaceae) tree at a height of eight meters in a dry forest located at Corrales de Sán Luis Beltran, Tubará; Colombian Caribbean, December 2009. Note that there is a termite colony in the opposite side of the branch; this individual was previously observed while feeding on termites.
After this sighting, I was really curious to know the taxonomic identity of this anole species. I had never seen something like it in my home department (Atlántico).