Lizards

Green Anole Anolis carolinensis

Description 125 - 203 mm (5 - 8 in) - This lizard possesses the ability to change colors. The dorsal ground color ranges from bright green to dark brown and is covered in small granular scales. Males have a pink colored throat fan (called a dewlap), which is used in both territorial and courtship displays. Green Anoles are also known as "chameleons" based on their ability to change color. The color varies from brown to mottled green and brown to pure green, depending on the anole's body temperature, activity or behavior.

Habitat

Green Anoles are one of the most arboreal lizards in the United States. Preferred natural habitats are mesic (moist or wet) forests with brushy clearings and forest edges that have an established shrub layer or vine tangles. They are commonly seen on or around homes and other buildings or structures, taking advantage of exposed elevated surfaces on which to bask and forage for food. The diet includes a variety of insects; moths, crickets, beetles, flies, grasshoppers, and butterflies are eaten. Predators include Broadhead Skinks Eumeces laticeps, snakes and predatory birds. Active Green Anoles have been recorded from every month of the year, with peaks in spring and fall. In the winter months they become active during periods of sunny, warm weather.

Nesting Mates March to September. Single eggs are laid every 14 days, April to September, in leaf litter, trash, rock piles, moist debris. Incubation takes 5-7 weeks. After the incubation period, the eggs hatching can occur from late May through early October. Hatchlings average about 67 mm (2.6 in) in total length.

Range

A lizard of the southeastern United States, it ranges from North Carolina and southern Florida west to southeastern Oklahoma then south to southern Texas. Green Anoles are found throughout the state of Georgia except the mountainous regions. Green Anoles are the only anole species native to Florida, but they're getting harder and harder to find what with all the competition from the hardy and prolific little brown anoles. Northern Green Anole (Anole ccarolinensis carolinensis), found throughout range. Southern Green Anole (Anole carolinensis seminolus), only in southern Florida.

Discussion

The Green Anole is the only anole native to the United States. The Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei) was introduced in Florida and is established in some of Georgia's Coastal Plains cities. The Brown Anole is never green and has a light streak on the throat. Most green anoles have strawberry-red dewlaps, but some populations in southwest Florida have gray or greenish dewlaps. These populations were recently designated to be a separate subspecies, Anolis carolinensis seminolus. Unfortunately these anoles are just as hard to find amidst the far more plentiful Brown Anoles as their northern cousins. Here's a pretty individual from Fakahatchee Strand that had a faint row of light blue dots down its side.