Watching some televisions whilst eating my oatmeal this morning, with my body at 9AM and our society at 10, I saw something truly invigorating. What I witnessed was not through the portal of the television to another world, however, but was instead through the window just behind the TV to the world just outside my door.
A Carolina Anole, Anolis carolinensis, scurried across the window, pausing just long enough for me to get up to get a closer. Not ten minutes later, a mid-brown coloured male was on the Crape Myrtle next to my window. He was looking at something intently, something that was out of my perception. He ran down the tree, stretched out his dewlap, and began bobbing vigorously, before running out of sight.
A Carolina Anole, Anolis carolinensis, scurried across the window, pausing just long enough for me to get up to get a closer. Not ten minutes later, a mid-brown coloured male was on the Crape Myrtle next to my window. He was looking at something intently, something that was out of my perception. He ran down the tree, stretched out his dewlap, and began bobbing vigorously, before running out of sight.
Shortly after, another male in a bright green colour morph appeared on the other side of the tree. He too, after picking the perfect spot on the perfect branch, performed a dewlap, territorial display.
These two males were contesting for this area as their territory, within which they would have domain over the resources, primarily of food and especially of likely several females.
Carolina Anoles are native to the southeastern United States, and their family, Dactyloidae (alternatively subfamily Dactyloinae within the family Iguanidae) is native to the tropics and subtropics of the Americas. They are terrestrial and arboreal, but in order to survive in an urbanized world and due to competition with the invasive Bahaman Anole, Anolis sagrei, they have been relegated mainly to arboreality.
All in all, I was glad to have decided to open my blinds this morning. While their displays were meant as a means of communication with each other, they also communicated to me not only the importance of the so called "Natural World" but also how integrally apart of that world we all are. Even in a concrete jungle and even within your home on your couch, nature is there, alive and active, whether you decide to actively participate or not.
Here's the being active participants!
1 comment:
Could you infer which was the victor, or whether they were each successfully defending a separate territory?
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