A Smaller Relative
March 16, 2017
The colors of this senescing palm leaf appealed to me. I didn’t see the lizard until I put the camera’s viewfinder up to my eye. (See the posts of the past few days to see the larger relative.)
Romancing Reality
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“Senescing” – impressive! 😉 Yes, love those colors, like desert colors. Cute little guy.
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March 16, 2017 at 12:00 PM
Don’t be too impressed. I didn’t know the word until I’d heard my biologist husband use it about a billion times. These guys are cute, especially when they go through their push-up routine (no idea why they do that) or when they inflate their dewlaps (to attract mates). However, they are invasive Cuban brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) and are driving down the population of the native green anoles (Anolis carolinensis). See http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/reptiles/brown-anole/ and http://srelherp.uga.edu/lizards/anocar.htm.
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March 16, 2017 at 12:46 PM
Oh, I figured it was from listening to your husband! But hey, you listen! 😉 I wonder if the pushing upwards is to look threatening. Too bad about the invasives, but it’s such a common problem.
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March 19, 2017 at 12:21 PM
Maybe you’re right about threatening. Doesn’t scare me too much, but I suppose they don’t know that.
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March 19, 2017 at 1:29 PM
I clicked on the links and oh, I know the Green anole! It’s what we called a chameleon when I was a kid (like the article says, nickname), when we visited my grandparents on one of the GA Sea Islands every spring. We used to catch them and watch them change color – but we were gentle and always let them go quickly.
My father would take a “Where’s the Chameleon?” photo each year. When we got back home, we’d have the slide show from that year’s two weeks in paradise, and one a slide would be of a complex tangle of palmetto leaves, or a palmetto trunk. Somewhere in there was a little Green anole, disguising himself to blend in. I suppose it was part of what formed my aesthetic – or at least my ability to observe!
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March 19, 2017 at 12:30 PM
What a lovely memory! Thanks for writing about it, Lynn.
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March 19, 2017 at 1:30 PM