Green anole

Green anoles change colour from bright green to brown with temperature, light and mood, not to match their background. Males defend territories by bobbing their heads and flaring their throat fans. Sticky pads on their toes let them climb smooth walls and glass. In cold weather they shelter in crevices and under bark.

Anoles eat huge numbers of insects, including garden pests, and are food for snakes, birds and larger lizards. Where the introduced brown anole has spread, green anoles have moved higher into the trees, a change biologists have watched happen within a few decades.

Eggs — One egg at a time, every week or two through the summer
Nest — Laid singly in moist soil, leaf litter or rotting wood
Incubation — About 5 to 7 weeks
Hatchlings — About 6 cm long and independent at once
Maturity — In their first year
Lifespan — Usually 2 to 4 years in the wild

• Anoles on walls and windows are hunting insects and are harmless.
• Cats kill many anoles; keeping cats indoors protects them.
• An anole that has dropped its tail will grow a new one.

• Anoles are chameleons. They are a different family; they change colour, but not to match their background.
• A lizard that loses its tail is badly hurt. Dropping the tail is a defence, and it grows back.

• Brown anole
• Eastern fence lizard