Brown Anole Experiment

This blog is not related to chameleons specifically but may have some relevance in the future with breeding “friendly chameleons”. I am in no way claiming this to be scientific fact, just making personal observations based on my experiences with a very small population of lizards. My personal observations so far span over 3 brown anole lizards. One mother and two offspring. Their story below...

A brown anole I named “Roach” found me back in late August. I have probably hundreds of these little guys that have made my back yard their home. They are everywhere in Florida.
I was cleaning my roach bin outside and she must have seen the roaches from afar. Well, she races from across my back patio and stops right in front of me. Not scared at all, just had this look like “can I have one of those roaches?” So of course being the lizard lover that I am, I gathered a couple roach nymphs in a small cup bent down and fed her. She didn’t budge when I knelt down she just sat there waiting for her meal. As she gobbled them up I got a closer look at her and noticed she was very large. She looked very close to laying her egg. After feeding her I expected her to run off but she didn’t. Instead to my surprise she settled in to my orchid plants eyeballing me waiting for her next meal. Being wild, I really didn’t think she would stick around but I was wrong. Now 2 months later she greets me every morning waiting for bugs.

Now you are probably thinking she just stuck around for food. You would be correct! But I would like to add that I have been on two separate week vacations and she was not being fed at all. Every time I have returned she recognizes me and greets me with a “where’s my food” look :LOL:

Now let’s finally move on to my hypothesis. I wanted to see if her offspring would be “friendly” like her. I knew this would be a long shot because I had no idea where she laid her eggs and if these were even her offspring.

Disclaimer: I’m basing this off of similar behavior as well as location of the babies. So these are just my assumptions.

Fast forward to the beginning of October. What does my eye spy on one of my orchids? A baby!! So now I can put my hypothesis to the test. I presented a very very very small silkworm on my hand. And to my surprise the baby jumped on my hand and ate the silkworm. Box checked! Fast forward again and “Squirt” has made a home in my orchids and waits to be fed every morning.

Last but hopefully not the final is “baby no name”. It showed up with another baby about a week and a half ago. One baby stayed and the other I stopped seeing after a couple of days. These were a little more skittish but didn’t run to the hills when I tried to hand feed them. I ended up putting the food in a cup and watched them eat from the cup.

With all that I have presented I wonder if the mother is lacking a gene or has some kind of epigenetic marker that keeps her from being scared of humans. I am thinking she may be passing this on to her offspring. Only time will tell...to be continued.........
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Have you seen Chameleons in my Garden link on facebook? Mary Lovein has studied Jacksons xanths in her garden for years.
 
No I haven’t but I don’t have a Facebook account. I’ll google it and see if I can find it. :)
 

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