Aspects of the ecology of an introduced anole: Anolis cristatellus in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

Anolis cristatellus, a medium-large brown anole native to Puerto Rico, its satellite islands and the Virgin Islands group, has been introduced at La Romana on the south coast of the Dominican Republic. The time and circumstances of introduction are unknown, but it is thought to have occurred before 1920 in the port area southeast of the town. The species has become well established and phenomenally abundant, occupying an area of about 12 km2 and 13 km long. However, it is closely confined to the town of La Romana and adjacent altered areas with parks, gardens and evergreen trees, more mesic in aspect than adjacent relatively natural areas that are characterized by exposed limestone surfaces and chaparral-like formation of thorny shrubs and low, gnarled trees. The introduced A. cristatellus is closely associated with at least three species of native anoles. Anolis distichus is abundant both in the area invaded by A. cristatellus and in the relatively undisturbed habitat where cristatellus is absent. The two species often occur together on the same tree, and their height preferences coincide. Their food habits are similar, but with difference in average size of prey. Ants are a major food source for both. The smaller A. distichus may avoid predation by A. cristatellus through its greater agility. Anolis chlorocyanus is similar in size to A. cristatellus, but where the two co-occur, it is almost confined to trees with smooth and slippery trunks that are avoided by cristatellus; A. cybotes, a large, aggressive, predatory species, similar in habitat preference to A. cristatellus was found only outside the cristatellus area or on its edges. It seems that A. cristatellus is limiting to cybotes perhaps by preying on its hatchlings and outproducing it with shorter generation time and more frequent egg production.

Weak founder effect signal in a recent introduction of CaribbeanAnolis

“…2002; J. Eales, R.S. Thorpe and A. Malhotra, unpublished data), while invasions among islands within the Greater Antilles and among islands within the Lesser Antilles are more common (Fitch et al . 1989; Losos et al .…”

Predation Risk Perception, Food Density and Conspecific Cues Shape Foraging Decisions in a Tropical Lizard

“…Most of the time individuals spend on the ground corresponds to foraging bouts; otherwise, these anoles tend to remain on their perches [ 27 ]. Most of their diet consists of arthropods [ 31 ] and they have been reported to take advantage of novel resources in modified environments; for example, they exploit artificial light to feed at night in suburbs [ 31 , 32 ].…”

“…This decision was made based on previous studies that successfully used them for supplemental feeding of anoles in Puerto Rico [ 33 ]. Mealworms used in our experiments ranged in size from 12 mm to 20 mm, well within the size range of prey items for this species [ 31 ]. Mealworms were easily localized by anoles because they continuously crawled around trays during the experimental trials.…”

Ecological character displacement between a native and an introduced species: the invasion of Anolis cristatellus in Dominica

“…Snout-to-vent length (SVL), inter-limb length, body height and body width were measured following the protocol of Herrel, Meyers & Vanhooydonck (2001). Based on SVL, each individual was characterized as juvenile or adult (A. cristatellus: Fitch, Henderson & Guarisco, 1989;A. oculatus: Lazell, 1972).…”