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- The best places to find and adopt a green anole
- The gear you need to create the best environment for your anole
- Feeding and healthcare tips to prolong your anole’s life
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Meet the Green Anole
There are more than 300 different species of anole, but the North American green anole (also known as Anolis carolinensis) is the most popular in the American pet trade. Though these lizards are hardy and can make excellent pets, like all animals they have specific needs that you must meet if your new lizard is going to live a full, healthy life.
Appearance
Green anoles are small climbing lizards, and much of their appearance reflects their arboreal (tree-inhabiting) nature. They have very long tails that they use for balance when climbing trees. Their toes are also specialized for climbing: the tips are flattened and have tiny ridges on the bottoms that help them hook into crevices and hang on.
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Size: Green anoles
range from 5–8" (13–20 cm) in length, with most of their total length in the tail.
- Color: Despite their name, green anoles aren’t necessarily green but range in color from green to brown and can change between those two extremes. Anoles are typically brown when sleeping, ill, or cold, but turn bright green when warmed-up and active. An active, warm male anole turns from green to brown when confronting an intruder in its territory.
Green anoles have dewlaps (also called throat fans)—stiff ribs of cartilage attached to the throat that can flare outward. When this cartilage is erect, it stretches the skin of the throat into a flat half circle, making the anole’s head look much bigger. The dewlap is also vividly colored—usually bright pink—and is much more developed in males because they use their fan-flaring display to intimidate other males from encroaching on their territory.
Like many other lizards and snakes, anoles also have a pineal eye—an enlarged scale on the top of the head that covers a rudimentary third eye. This eye doesn’t form images but can sense light and darkness, and it functions as a timer that triggers hibernating and mating behaviors according to the length of daylight and variations in temperature. It also tells an anole when it needs to go into and out of the sun to regulate its body temperature.
Temperament
Green anoles are generally peaceful if housed and cared for properly, but they can be very territorial in certain circumstances, especially if you keep more than one male in the same enclosure. Male anoles are more territorial than females, but larger females often dominate smaller females in the same space. (The size of an anole’s territory varies depending on the terrain and the number of other anoles in the area. In most cases, a green anole claims an area several feet in diameter.)
Territorial Behavior
When an intruder
enters another anole’s territory, the resident male moves perpendicular to the newcomer and flares its dewlap. The intruder may return the fan-flaring display. In addition to erecting the throat fan, either or both males may then jerk their head up and down rapidly or do “push-ups,” in which the whole front of the body jerks up and down. Usually the interloper takes the hint at this point and backs off. If not, the resident male lunges at the newcomer and chases it around until it leaves the area.
Despite this warning behavior, the display is mostly a bluff—rarely does any actual violence occur among green anoles. However, if you plan to keep multiple green anoles, it’s best not to have more than one male in an enclosure.
Natural History
Wild green anoles inhabit much of the southeastern United States, from southeastern Virginia to the Florida Keys and westward to southern Texas. Anole populations have also been introduced into a few Caribbean islands,
Oahu, and northeastern Mexico, but almost all the wild green anoles in the world live within US borders.
Although green anoles are adept climbers that are rarely seen on the ground, they usually don’t live very high up in trees, either. They prefer shrubbery, walls, fences, and small trees and usually don’t climb higher than 15 feet
(4.6 m). Anoles are very acrobatic and jump from bush to bush rather than move along the ground.
In the wild, green anoles feed on small arthropods, mostly insects and spiders. They spend a large percentage of their waking hours hunting for food or at least are alert to strike at any unwary bug that wanders close enough. Anoles hunt visually, looking for any small, moving creature. They focus carefully with their eyes and lunge forward, snapping the prey in their jaws.
“American Chameleons”
Green anoles were once referred to as American chameleons but are not actually related to chameleons. This misnomer came about because of an anole’s ability to change color; however, it does so differently than chameleons. Chameleons can change to many colors and patterns, while green anoles are limited to greens and browns and can’t make any patterns (although some can form small spots), and their throats and bellies always remain white.
Is Your Home Right for a Green Anole?
Green anoles make excellent pet lizards. They are quiet, odorless (provided you regularly clean their enclosure), relatively undemanding, inexpensive, and hardy. However, like most herps (reptiles and amphibians), anoles are not pets in the same way that cats or dogs are. They are too small and delicate to really handle, and so are best thought of as interesting animals to observe and care for rather than pets that you can cuddle or play with.
| Text & Photos Copyright © 2007 TFH Publications, Inc. | Acknowledgments & Disclaimer |
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