Capture the Invader

Over spring break, I was lucky enough to travel with my Biology of Coral Reefs class to the Florida Keys for a week of diving around Key Largo. On one of our afternoons free of diving, we traveled to Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park to see the Pleistocene reef that had been mined there. We walked along the trail through the woods and immediately took notice to a multitude of lizards, bounding from tree to tree and crawling along the trailside. We speculated on what we thought they were, with the general consensus that they were likely anoles. I was fortunate enough to encounter one on a tree, who stayed still long enough for me to photograph and later identify as being Anolis distichus, the bark anole.

Bark anoles are aptly named as they much resemble the bark they tend to hang out on. Ranging from a greenish dark brown to grey, the bark anoles is distinguished by such coloration as well as a dark bar over the eye and a dorsal ridge. Additionally, they're a speckled with small, whitish blotches that resemble lichens on the bark of a tree. You can see how well the tail end of the anole blends in the remaining bark in the photograph. This anole was  spotted on Windley Key, well within the introduced range of the species. He was scuttling along a downed tree when he caught my attention. He briefly flashed his yellowish dewlap and then became quite still. The stillness was likely for camouflage, as when he is not moving, his colorations blend in terrifically with the bark. 

Anolis distichus is a species of anole native to Hispaniola that was first introduced in Florida in the mid 1900s, likely via cargo. Since then, the Bark anole has spread through south Florida and into some of the Keys, according to our guidebook. 

Anolis distichus