The Brown Anole is native to the Caribbean and was first introduced into the USA in southern Florida decades ago. Since then, the species has slowly expanded northward and is now firmly established in some areas of coastal and southern Georgia. it has also invaded other regions of USA, including Louisiana, Hawai’i and in 2014 in California. The biological impacts of A. sagrei are often poorly known. Evidence from its invasion of Taiwan demonstrated it spreads quickly when immediate action is not taken to eradicate it.
Fisher et al. (2020) looked for the biological impacts of A. sagrei in Orange County, California, at five urban sites. Each site was less than 100 ha, they were surveyed for an average of 49.2 min. Approximately 200 A. sagrei were seen and verified across all survey sites. The paucity of native lizards encountered during the surveys within these sites suggests little to no overlap between the dominant diurnal western fence lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis, and A. sagrei. This notable lack of overlap could indicate a potentially disturbing reality that A. sagrei are driving local extirpations of the Western Fence Lizard, S. occidentalis.
Reference
Fisher SR, Del Pinto LA, Fisher RN. 2020. Establishment of brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) across a southern California county and potential interactions with a native lizard species. PeerJ 8:e8937 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8937
