Herpetology Notes, volume 5: 95-97 (2012) (published online on 21 April 2012)
A record of a green anole (Anolis carolinensis Voigt 1832), from the wild in southwestern Taiwan Gerrut Norval1*, Jean-Jay Mao2 and Stephen R. Goldberg3
The green anole (Anolis carolinensis) is a small arboreal lizard, native to the southern parts of the USA, from Florida, through Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina (Smith, 1946; Conant and Collins, 1998). Anolis carolinensis has also been introduced into Anguilla, Grand Bahama, Belize, Bermuda, the Canary Islands, Cayman Islands, the Commonwealth of the North Mariana Islands, the Federate States of Micronesia, Guam, Hawaii, the Ogasawara Islands, the Ryukyu Islands, Palau, and Spain, as well as in the USA in California, Kansas, Maryland, Texas, and West Virginia, although not all these introductions resulted in establishing viable populations (Kraus, 2009, and the references stated therein). On the 20th of March, 2002, an A. carolinensis was observed basking on a piece of PVC irrigation pipe (Fig.1), laying on the ground surface in a betel nut palm (Areca catechu L.) stand, growing on the bank of a creek that flows through Santzepu, Sheishan District, Chiayi County, Taiwan (23º25’44”N, 120º28’55”E, 285 m elev., datum: WGS84). When the lizard was approached, it fled to the trunk of an A. catechu (Fig.1), and although it could be photographed, attempts to capture it failed, and the lizard fled to the crown of the palm. At 11:00, on the 2nd of October, 2003, an A. carolinensis roadkill (Fig.2) was collected from a tarred road in the same vicinity (23º25’47”N, 120º28’55”E, 285 m elev., datum: WGS84) as where the first observation was made. The lizard had a snout-vent length of 48 mm, and a tail
1 Applied Behavioural Ecology & Ecosystem Research Unit, Department of Environmental Sciences, UNISA, Private Bag X6, Florida, 1710, Republic of South Africa, (e-mail:
[email protected]) 2 Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, National Ilan University. No. 1, Sec. 1, Shen-Lung Rd., Ilan, 260, Taiwan, R.O.C. 3 Department of Biology, Whittier College, Whittier, California 90608, U.S.A. *Corresponding author
length of 101 mm. The trunk of the body was damaged and a fully shelled oviductal egg was protruding from it (Fig.2). The A. carolinensis was subsequently deposited in the herpetology collection of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (LACM), Los Angeles, California, USA, as LACM 182814. Since the area described herein is visited regularly and no other A. carolinensis has been observed in this area to date, we can not exclude the possibility that the same individual was observed on both occasions. It is also not known
Figure 1. The green anole (Anolis carolinensis) on the trunk of a betelnut palm (Areca catechu) that it fled to when attempts were made to capture it (photographed by Gerrut Norval).
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Gerrut Norval et al.
Figure 2. The green anole (Anolis carolinensis) roadkill that was collected from a tarred road in Santzepu, Sheishan District, Chiayi County, Taiwan. Note the shelled oviductal egg that protruded from the body of the lizard when it was found on the road (photographed by Gerrut Norval).
whether the lizard was an escaped or released pet, or if it were the remnant of a founder population that failed to establish. It should also be noted that, in the mid 1990’s, the second author (JJM) noted that A. carolinensis was a common species in the pet trade in Taipei City, northern Taiwan, and that the lizards often escaped from their cages and were free-running within the pet shops (Mao, personal observation), which could lead to A. carolinensis establishing in the wild. The existence of A. carolinensis in the pet trade in northern Taiwan has been confirmed by Shiau et al. (2006), and A. carolinensis has also been sighted in the pet trade in Chiayi City, southwestern Taiwan, on several occasions (Norval, personal observation). The brown anole (Anolis sagrei), an exotic invasive species in Taiwan (Norval et al., 2002; Chang, 2007; Norval et al., 2009), exists in in the locality described herein. Since it has been determined that the A. sagrei populations in Taiwan originated from Florida, USA (Kolbe et al, 2004; Kolbe, Larson and Losos, 2007; Norval et al., 2011), it is conceivable that some A. carolinensis could also have established populations in Taiwan from the same origin in the same manner. The discovery of A. carolinensis in the wild in Taiwan is alarming. Because Florida (USA), Hawaii, and Taiwan, are located at similar latitudes and proximity to the ocean, the climatic conditions of these localities are very similar. We suspect that if suitable numbers of A. carolinensis are released into the wild, these lizards will
establish viable populations in Taiwan. Since it has been shown that parasites can be introduced into new localities with A. carolinensis (Goldberg, Bursey and Kraus, 2004), and because these lizards have been implicated in negative impacts on native arthropods and reptiles in the Ryukyu Archipelago, where A. carolinensis has become an invasive species (Karube, 2010; Toda et al, 2010; Yoshimura and Okochi, 2010), it can be expected that they would impact local ecosystems in a negative manner. In order to prevent Taiwan from becoming like Florida (USA), where numerous exotic invasive amphibian and reptile populations exist (Meshaka, Butterfield and Hauge, 2004), the species permitted in the pet trade in Taiwan should be revised. Also, to prevent future accidental introductions of exotic invasive amphibians and reptiles into Taiwan, drastic steps, including the quarantining and careful inspection of imported cargos from tropical sites, are merited. Acknowledgements. The authors would like to thank ShaoChang Huang for his kind assistance with obtaining some of the references, and Gernot Vogel and Prof. Jonathan Losos for their comments and for reviewing this paper.
Anolis carolinensis from southwestern Taiwan
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Accepted by Philip de Pous
