Thursday, October 14, 2010

Turning Green While You Wait

I heard a scrambling at the base of a tree beside the trail south from the Fishing area (segment 13) and turned around expecting to see an Eastern Fence lizard (Sceloporus undulates) or a Five Lined Skink (Eumeces sp). Not a Green Anole. But there it was. This was the first time I’d ever seen a Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) at Fort Yargo State Park.


In the early morning, the temperature was still cool and the anole was quite brown. It had crawled up into the sunlight on the tree trunk to catch some rays.

Within a minute, it started to turn green. I waited for several minutes in the hope that it would turn completely green but it was still to cool and it stayed the same color. So I had to move on.
Click on an image to view a larger image

Identification resources:
- Savannah River Ecology Laboratory: Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis)
at

3 comments:

  1. rebeccaOctober 14, 2010 at 9:09 PM

    How cool! Anoles are very common where I am but I've never actually witnessed one changing color. Maybe I need more patience.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JSKOctober 14, 2010 at 9:30 PM

    And some luck. I've seen then change color a few times, but more often than not, they're just brown or green.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LizOctober 17, 2010 at 10:42 PM

    What fun to see an anole in the wild. I kept them as pets when I was a kid - so much fun.

    ReplyDelete