“The Brown Anole is a small brown lizard from the Carribean (Anolis sagrei) recently introduced to Singapore, most likely by being unintentionally brought in with plants for Gardens by the Bay (above).
“The male has a bright orange dewlap, a flap of skin below the throat, which it displays to attract females as well as when warding off predators, as a protracted dewlap makes the lizard look bigger (above). The dewlap display is also sometimes accompanied by head-bobbing. Here is a video of a male protracting and retracting his dewlap:
“The female Brown Anole is slightly smaller in size, and here one is seen moulting (below).
“Moments after the above picture was taken, the male which was nearby made his way over and mounted the female right in front of my camera (below)!
“On my next visit a few months later, I noticed a few more Brown Anoles in various parts of the Gardens, as well as tiny baby anoles scuttling around the plants (below).
“As far as I’m aware, the growing population of Brown Anoles is still confined to the Gardens by the Bay, or at least the Marina Bay area. Only time will tell what impact, if any, this new species will have on local biodiversity.”
Lena Chow
Singapore
June 2014
7 responses
Very nice big photos. I wonder if this lizard can compete against the highly successful changeable lizard, which seems to have taken over all of Asia. They are literally everywhere, in almost every country in this region, even on Maldives! How they crossed the stretches of sea to spread to all the different atolls stumps me! Also, some of the atolls are so small that it makes me wonder how their population can sustain itself.
Many exotic species are more aggressive than the indigenous…
Just sighted this today (9th aug 2017) in a flower garden at bah soon pah road– its range expanded quite far here. Immediately after the dewlap display the male mounted a female as well.
Hi my name is Ginni and im from northen Georgia and i have seen these exact type of anole here !
I meant northen Georgia 😀
Just saw and took photos of several in Jurong Lake Gardens. Guess they’ve spread..