June 21, 2021

Lara's Favorite Species: The Green Anole

17 minutes

Florida's native green anole (pronounced "uh-nole"), Anolis carolinensis, is Lara's favorite species in all of Florida! In this episode of Naturally Florida, we'll be chatting about what makes the green anole so special and about their nonnative look-alike, the brown anole (Anolis sagrei).

Learn more:

Cuban Brown Anole or Green Anole (video): https://youtu.be/KQhnzi9mkYI

Landscaping Solutions: Green Anoles: https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/design/gardening-with-wildlife/anoles.html

How You Can Help:

Help us document their populations! If you see a green anole in your yard or while out in one of Florida's many natural areas, snap a picture with your smartphone and upload it to iNaturalist.org.

Add habitat to your yard or neighborhood. Consider adding native shrubs or small trees and changing part of your yard from lawn to Florida-Friendly Landscaping to provide habitat for a variety of small critters. Learn more here: https://ffl.ifas.ufl.edu/about-ffl/9-principles/principle-5-attract-wildlife/

Sources for this Episode:

Invader Updater: Cuban Brown Anole, UF Wildlife Department (2011) https://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/InvaderUpdater/pdfs/InvaderUpdater_Winter2011.pdf

Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis), Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (n.d.) https://srelherp.uga.edu/lizards/anocar.htm

Analysis of the effects of an exotic lizard on a native lizard in Florida ..., University of Tennessee (2000) https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/4722/

Florida Lizards are Evolving, Fast, Science Connected (2014) https://magazine.scienceconnected.org/2014/10/florida-lizards-evolving-rapidly/

If you enjoyed this episode, please consider sharing it with a friend who might enjoy learning about Florida's natural areas and the wild things that live here!

If you're active on iNaturalist, consider joining our iNaturalist project, Naturally Florida's Listener Observations, here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/naturally-florida-s-listener-observations

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By Shannon Carnevale and Lara Milligan

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