6 Cool Facts about Green/Brown Anoles | Pet Reptiles

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Let other people have cats and dogs! Jungle Bob is here to show you that owning a pet reptile or amphibian is not as crazy as you might think. In this video, he tells you six cool facts about green anoles and brown anoles.

For many people, a trip to Florida is often a chance to encounter one of Florida's most populace lizards, and that is the green and brown anoles. Little tiny lizards with quite a temperament to them, they are a little bit on the tenacious side.

Predators for sure. They look like mini velociraptors to me sometimes, because of their tenacity when they hunt their favorite prey which, of course, is insects.

Two distinct different species, and sometimes I refer to as anolies, anoles. It's almost like tomatoes, tomahtoes; you can say it a lot of different ways. But there's two distinct ones, the first one here is biting my right finger, is the green anole, or the Carolina anole, which is native from the Carolinas all the way down to Florida. This is a native American species that was quite popular in the pet trade for many many years.

In my left hand is the brown anole, which lives in Florida but now more of them, most of them, come up from the Caribbean, and the Bahamas, they're hitchhikers, and they've gotten into the United States. They're somewhat an invasive species, and they're so tenacious they're kind of pushing our green anole friends up the border and out of competition for food. They're very, very aggressive as well.

Green anoles are beautiful, little creatures, in that they have, particularly the males of the species, they throw out this gorgeous dewlap. It's a flap of skin underneath the neck that is brightly colored, and that serves a dual purpose. It's first function, certainly, is to attract a girlfriend. A male anole with a beautiful dewlap is most likely to mate with his female counterparts.

The other part of it is just to scare off another male. A male will puff up and show big he is, even though we're looking at an animal that's about 3 to 4 inches in total length, and maybe a couple of ounces in weight. He's trying to show how big and bad he is by throwing out his dewlap, bobbing his head, and saying territorially, this is my area; I live here, you back off.

So, the green and brown anoles are something that I'm sure everybody who's visited Disney World, or has seen grandma in Florida, you're going to encounter these. They cohabitate beautifully with mankind. They are everywhere: crawling across houses, inside of houses, in porches; a daytime diurnal animal that you'll see all day long.

At night they sleep on walls and tree-trunks and they're extremely easy to catch when they're sleeping. During the day, not so much. They are very, very quick, as we can see, our guys here in the branch, how fast they can scurry. This is an animal that suffers from the malady known as autotonomy, which is, if I grab it by the tail, he'll detach that tail, and I'll be left with a wiggling tail in my hand, and the lizard will actually escape.

It's natures way for lizards to defend themselves from not being eaten by some of their favorite predators. Snakes birds of prey, etc, will grab him by the tail because they're so fast and all they'll get is that tail meal, and the lizard lives to see another day. Their tail regenerates, but it's never quite as nice as the original.

This is the green and the brown anole, a treasure of the American southeast, and something you'll see on any trip to the Florida area. They also make wonderful jewelry, should you be so inclined.

[jagstono]

The amount of times I have looked in my backyard and seen a brown anole doing push-ups or something like that, It truly amazes me

[ericcartmansstrengthandpow]

I used to catch tons of these growing up in Houston. One in particular, a female, lived by our trash cans. She became my outdoor pet. I could handle her anytime I wanted, she'd never bite. She'd let me carry her around for extended periods of time and would even ride around on my scooter with me perched atop the handlebars and she wouldn't jump off. I of course named her Lizzy. She was awesome and kew.

[ozzy]

I see a lot of comments about how Bob handles the lizards. You have to remember anoles aren't particularly the most easy to handle animals and are extremely fast. He is making an informative video and needs them to not run off; chasing them and trying to grab them would be much more stressful on the animal than 3 minutes of handling. And yes I am a reptile owner. 

[TheMalmut]

Grew up in Florida and our yard was full of green anoles. As years passed they became fewer and fewer, as the Cuban anoles took over. Even today, when I visit my mom, you can find 1-3 green anoles still around.

As kids, we'd tap on their mouths to get them to open, and clip them on our earlobes. As an adult, I respect all creatures and don't mess with them anymore.

I've come to respect a particular green anole that shows no fear of me. It'll make it's rounds, walk past me and sometimes chill on the porch screen while I'm out having a smoke. It once crawled on the chair I was sitting on and chilled there long after I got up. I'll calmly talk to it everytime I see it, and it watches me. I like to think we have an understanding and look forward to seeing it again.

[TheExplosiveGuy]

I had two anoles when I was a kid, one was brown and the other green, I absolutely loved them. The brown was a bit smaller but super feisty, she would bite my fingers the first chance she got, but the green male which was much bigger was the most chilled out lizard I've ever had, he was a real buddy to me, I could reach my hand into his tank and he would walk up my fingers and gently crawl into my hand, and he loved chilling on my shoulder, he'd sit there for an hour without moving lol. They make great pets for kids, as long as they know how to care for them (super easy, crickets every two weeks, mist with water daily, keep their water dish full, heat lamp on one side and bi-monthly tank cleanings), I was 6 when I first got them and had them for 4 and 5 years before they both died, their normal lifespan in captivity. Its fun as hell watching them when you dump in a box of 50 crickets, they go nuts lol.

[JerryN]

My sister was a master at catching anoles. And when we were little, she thought it was hilarious to walk around with a lizard hanging from both her ears!

[marquiceroscoe]

I work with these beautiful creatures all the time. I enjoyed watching how they react to each other.

[haileymioton]

My green anole never bites
kinda want him to hang off of my finger tho 😂
but he's cool....just chilling on my arm rn

[elsacolon]

When I had a HUGE cockroach in my backyard I saw a small lizard and the lizard was near roach it was small and then one minute I see the lizard and its HUGE

[Lovelyswan]

I've caught sooo many of these lizards... named them and all. I even planned to start a vlog called "Lizard Catcher101" lol! :) they're a lot in our backyard/balcony. They come around every spring and summer.

[dickgrimes]

I find them remarkable. because they were released by an old pet shop next to my house after it closed. and now they have thrived and become ferrel after year of breeding. But I live in NEW YORK. so they seem to be able to hibernate or brumate for a number of months until mid spring when it gets 70s-80s (May to August).

[loisjohnson]

North Carolina here, and I absolutely love the little lizards and ❤ made a cute little spot next to my little garden just for them, a home they love, with a tiny water fall, rocks, wood items, etc❤

[Gremory_]

there are hundreds of them chilling on sidewalk in florida, i need to be careful not to run over them with my bicycle.

[Evergreen]

I know they say they are skittish and don’t like to be held. Bought I have also caught an awful lot of them that after a minute or two of petting them, they’ll just climb up on my arm and shoulder and chill out.

I remember when I was going to school in Florida I caught one before school and was gently petting its head. It climbed up on my arm so I brought it to school with me. I had it on my desk all day long, with it chilling on my desk then back on my arm off and on. It didn’t want to leave my side, even when I went back outside. I’ve caught a number of them like that. So not all of them are skittish.

[ESLaParra]

Dude you keep talking about Florida, they are everywhere.

[eddmki]

He protecc
He attacc
But most importantly





He have big sacc

[SOHBlue]

I just found a green one in my room and set it outside. So cool to learn about these cute little guys~! 💙

[charlottencu]

I took some video of 2 green anoles fighting today in NC. They were stalking each other on my pindo palm. At first I thought it may be a mating ritual, but after doing a bit of research, I believe now they were fighting. One grabbed the other by the bottom jaw. The funny thing is that neither would give in to the other.

[aprilzoe_]

I always catch them here in Puerto Rico lol they're my favorite I release them after I give them a photo shoot on my Snapchat lmao

[beeboj]

He’s like a kid with action figures haha, the anole was so mad 😂😂
Great video 👍