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Florida Lizard
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Re: Florida Lizard
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ira Runyan
A couple shots of Brown Anoles in my back yard.
Ahh yes, the little bastards that have run my beloved green anoles. Damn them.
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Re: Florida Lizard
Quote:
Originally Posted by almo
Ahh yes, the little bastards that have run my beloved green anoles. Damn them.
That's only true in part.
It's true that brown anoles are becoming more common, and green anoles less common.
However, they occupy different biological niches and are not in direct competition for territory, habitat or food. You can see the differences plainly in the body structure of those two - brown anoles have shorter legs and a stockier build more adept to living on flat surfaces like tree trunks, the ground, and building walls. The green anoles have long, slender legs that are only really good for grasping thin branches and grasses. A green anole and a brown anole can live on the same forest - edge tree and never meet.
Where people live, brown anoles do better. Where grasslands are cleared, brown anoles do better. Where lawns are mowed, brown anoles do better. Where trees are felled, brown anoles do better. Make sense? It's easy to say that one invasive species is pushing out a native species, and it's probably true to some extent - but the real culprit is urban sprawl.
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Re: Florida Lizard
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sushigaijin
That's only true in part.
It's true that brown anoles are becoming more common, and green anoles less common.
However, they occupy different biological niches and are not in direct competition for territory, habitat or food. You can see the differences plainly in the body structure of those two - brown anoles have shorter legs and a stockier build more adept to living on flat surfaces like tree trunks, the ground, and building walls. The green anoles have long, slender legs that are only really good for grasping thin branches and grasses. A green anole and a brown anole can live on the same forest - edge tree and never meet.
Where people live, brown anoles do better. Where grasslands are cleared, brown anoles do better. Where lawns are mowed, brown anoles do better. Where trees are felled, brown anoles do better. Make sense? It's easy to say that one invasive species is pushing out a native species, and it's probably true to some extent - but the real culprit is urban sprawl.
The browns are far more aggressive than the greens. As such the have "chased" them away from the habitat in which I normally encountered them. Greens are still out there, but they have moved mainly up into the canopies where they are not as visible, and certainly not photographable. The plain truth is that they are not as common as they used to be. I would personally much rather see the beautiful native green anoles that used to haunt the eves of my house, and bushes than the plague of browns that infest this place now.
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Re: Florida Lizard
I agree wholeheartedly. I'd WAY rather see a native animal than an invasive, and that goes for anything. The greens are more attractive too :D The browns are pushing the greens out in sub-standard green anole habitat. If you put a brown and a green in a habitat custom built for a green, it will push the brown anole out.
Anoles are most interesting because of their ecological niche divergence...it is possible to have FIVE species of anole on a single tree and they will never meet because they occupy different biological niches. In some areas there are naturally three or more species, all in different micro-habitats of the main habitat. We think on the scale of people-size so much that I often forget that a tree is like the whole city to an anole, with lots of different neighborhoods, climates and terrains.
That's cool.
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