Leaping Lizards!

December 1999 Table of Contents

LEAPING LIZARDS!
by Jack Hardy

Although not as celebrated as its larger curly-tailed cousin, the Key West anole is found in every Abaco garden and helps us all by eating flies and mosquitoes. The Key West anole (Anolis sagrei) is related to the iguana and comes to us from Cuba and not Key West as its name suggests. It is one of six species in The Bahamas.

And what lovely creatures they are, always scampering around and up to mischief as they forage the garden detritus, climb walls and leap from branch to branch in trees and bushes.

Although not colourful, the males do have an orange-red dewlap - a throat patch that blows up like a flat balloon - which indicates one of two possibilities: territorial or sexual display. Mostly, of course, it's territorial, but if you can tell the difference between fighting and making little lizards you'll be inspired by their ardour. One copulating couple in my yard fell off an 18 inch bench without breaking stride, the equivalent of a three-storey drop. Don't try to imitate them.

While in their display, anoles like to do push ups. You can be sure that the little denizens of your yard are really fit. Like most lizards, they expose themselves to the sun to warm their blood up and then retire under leaves to cool out. In the sun they are usually a light grey. When they enter shadows they turn brown, and under deep leaf cover they are almost black. This colour change helps modify their blood temperature, being darker in the shade and more receptive to available low light.

Key West anoles share the habit of other lizards of shedding their tail when in peril. Slight fractures in their vertebrae allow them to leave their tails in a cat's mouth while the important part of them lives on to play another day.

And play is what they seem to do. Sit out on a patio in Abaco and you will surely soon have anoles in evidence. They chase each other, posture and pose. They are always on the go. The females are somewhat smaller and more svelte than the males and lay their eggs, usually in springtime, under rotting leaves. The eggs are translucent white and about 1/8 inch in diameter. They are often mistaken for insect eggs and destroyed.

Which is a pity, for the Key West anole loves to eat what we hate: bugs. They rarely get as attached to human beings as curly-tailed lizards, but they blithely ignore us as their fighting spirit and libido leads them into endless adventures during the heat of the day. They are the playful rascals of the garden.

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