Spring has finally come to south Louisiana, we had a mild winter but wet and dismal. Everything is starting to spout and even the anoles are out in force. They are feeding on all the small insects they can find. The smaller female (with line on back) is shedding her skin-typical for all reptiles.

I had to pry off two of these from a large, yellow, sticky card two days ago. They both were after mosquito hawks that were stuck. They may have been a male and female. I don't know. It was tedious prying their little toes, then necks, then tummies, and finally tails from those cards. I put them both out into the yard and they were not there the following day. I hope they both survived and hope if they take up residence in my greenhouse again, they will have learned their lesson.

Hi John

We have a few of those anoles here too.

I liked the lizard and the tree frog jockeying for a place on the leaf.





and these big boys were not playing nicely together.

Probably husband wife.

The males are very territorial and during mating season there are lots of fights. Most of the time they end harmless but I've seen a few "beat up" males. I hope to get some pictures of them sparring -it's quite a sight how they contort their bodies to look mean and larger.

Anole

How come the females always win the battles?

Because they stand back and let the males beat each other up?

We have anoles everywhere! And they got bigger over the winter. How can you tell male from female?

The males are much larger, will have a dewlap (the pink fold of skin that they like to show), the snout is more to a point and larger.
The females have a rounder, smaller snout and the geometric pattern down their backbone.

Anole

Love the anole lizards. Thanks for sharing.

Last year I learned to recognize the eggs. As I am gardening I relocate the anole eggs to a safe place where they can hatch.

Here is my anole egg incubator set up:

When we lived in Hawaii, the anoles would come to crawl on the screened -in lanai at night to catch bugs that were attracted to the lights. We could see the eggs in the females' tummies, illuminated in the lights!

When the anoles here square off, they look positively prehistoric.



Engaging the enemy

Ouch

Knowing when to back down

Time to go

Great pics!! I've only seen an anole fight once, and it was unbelievable! I'll never forget it!

Thanks... I was just lucky to be out at the right time.

Your anoles are ruffians! Is this female? She was pretty big.

I am not an expert on anoles but it looks like a male, females are smaller and have a smaller head. If "he" has the pink fold of skin under his chin and does some head bobbing --it's probably a male.

Moonhowl has some great pictures of males fighting. Something else to notice-- looking at Moonhowl's pictures you will notice a dark blackish spot near the eyes. This seems to occur when anoles are stressed. When anoles are in their comfort zone they won't have this.

Anole

Also, when the males get ramped up, they display a ridge at the back of the head and shoulders as seen in the above pictures.