Little Critters

Brown Anole
(Anolis sangrei)
January 14, 2009

One thing we really enjoy when on vacation is seeing local wildlife. This adorable little brown lizzard was spotted on the trunk of a tree about 10 feet from the rental house sunporch. I think this was a female brown anole along with another one scurried to safety just out of human reach but I managed to snap a few pictures. We saw several of these little critters during our stay. One of them even made their home inside the sunporch of a home we visited. The owners were quite pleased as the little critter kept any bugs in check and no doubt he was happy being out of harms way from predators.

The brown anole (Anolis sangrei) is an introduced species to Florida from Cuba and the Bahamas. These little (5" - 8" long) lizards scurry about the ground and in trees. They co-exist with the native green anole and like them change colour depending on their surroundings. Males have a dark stripe down their backs while females have a white stripe. Males have a bright orange dewlap displayed for attracting females. Their diet consists of small arthopods (eg. pill bugs, spiders, centipedes, millipedes), annelids (eg. worms, leeches) and molluscs (eg. snails, slugs).

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