He was about five and a half inches long and appeared to be an adult male. He had a slender body and a long slender tail. His behavior was a little odd. I was surprised that he kept exposing his throat fan to us, instead of running away immediately. Maybe he was being territorial with us, which would be weird since we're not anoles, or was trying to attract a mate in our presence. He also kept doing slight push-ups on the tombstones, again maybe being territorial or trying to cool itself.
Anoles are usually active during the day when the weather is warm and will bask in the sunlight. I was in a graveyard that belongs to the Unitarian Church of Charleston and there was a lot of vegetation with shady and sunny spots, which is the perfect habitat for an anole. The green anole inhabits much of the Southeast of the US and lives in habitats that are warm, humid, and areas that have trees and vegetation, such as forests. They are very abundant in our area and are spotted in a variety of different habitats. The picture below is a photo I took to show how much vegetation was in this site. Since they eat insects and get water from dew on plants, there are a lot of opportunities for this anole to thrive.
This was a pretty interesting find. I have seen so many of this species in all kinds of habitats in South Carolina. I think the dewlap was really interesting to see since we learned about it in class. I thought his behavior was weird because all the ones I've seen in the past have just ran away. He seemed to be marking his territory and didn't want us near his tombstone. I'm sure we threatened him. It was nice to spot his bright green coloration, which is so characteristic of this species and I think the habitat I found him in was pretty typical of a green anole.
1 comment:
Definitely a territorial display by an adult male, with the dewlap and pushups! Maybe there were other male anoles around that he was displaying to?
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