Sunday, March 29, 2009

Wildlife Weekend :: Leapin' Lizards!

I was cleaning up the living room this weekend and saw a little pair of eyes peeking out from the sliding glass door track. A little lizard was stuck in the house - a brown anole to be specific. I figured I'd shoo him outside before he dried out and died or became a victim of our cats, but when I went to grab him, he didn't run. The poor little anole was already starting to dry out. I reached down and picked him up and he bit me.



Brown anoles have two methods of self-protection when handled - they'll bite you or poop on you. This one chose to bite me. We used to wear these lizards as earrings when I was a kid. If you really wanted to disturb your teacher, you'd hang one from your tongue or lip when you walked back into the classroom.



This little guy was thin and not running so I wasn't sure he'd make it. He was already missing part of his tail, and I'm sure my cats were responsible for that. I put him on the patio and sprinkled some water in his mouth and on his back. Finally I put him outside next to a plate of water.

When I just checked on him later that night he was gone. Let's hope he's living out his little lizard life somewhere now. I suppose I should have snuffed him out when I first saw him since brown anoles are a highly-invasive species and are wiping out the native green anoles. Poor little invasive lizards - they don't know they're bad news, but they do know how to bite.

6 comments:

Daphne Gould said...

What a bizarre image, live lizards as earrings. Poor little invasive things.

Unknown said...

What a crazy lizard! Cool photo.

Peggy said...

Ouch!! I cannot believe that you used to use them for jewelry. Didn't they have to bite to do that? They must hold on once they bite. I think I would opt for poop! Thanks for sharing!

Kate and Crew said...

Daphne/Peggy - they do bite, but it doesn't hurt. Their teeth are so tiny that only bugs can feel them and it's not much pressure at all. They'd only hang on for 2-3 minutes before they'd decide it wasn't worth it and let go and scamper away. When you pick them up they open their mouth to bite you and they'll latch on to the first thing that comes near their mouth. In my case it grabbed my finger as I tried to pick him up. When I was in school, we'd pick them up, wait until they opened their mouth and then just put them on face somewhere - LOL.

***No little lizards were hurt during this***

Corner Gardener Sue said...

It is hard to know how to deal with wildlife. It's difficult to tell what is balance in nature any more.

My son has always been into reptiles and other critters. He had some for pets.

Anonymous said...

He has you now! muahahahaaahaa!

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