The riparian reptile that evades danger by blowing bubbles
Nick Baker’s HIDDEN WORLD The popular naturalist, author and TV presenter reveals a secret realm of overlooked wildlife
WATER ANOLE
Plop! A lizard leapt from the verdant foliage fringing a tropical stream and into the dappled pools below. It was a common occurrence as I traced my path along the banks, and sometimes I caught a glimpse. All skinny and scaled, these lizards were sometimes basilisk lizards, but more often they were even daintier anole lizards. I wondered what happened after they dipped below the surface, and if I had followed my curiosity, I may have noticed something quite amazing.
Anoles are an extremely successful family of lizards, with more than 400 species. They are found throughout the warmer regions of the Americas, almost anywhere you care to look. From urban shrubberies and gardens to wild, tangled, tropical forest, you will find an anole somewhere, hunting insects or sipping nectar from flowers.
These small lizards are easily overlooked. Many are brown or green, with bands and spangles of contrasting markings, and they are on the slim side, too – twiggy lizards in a world of twigs. The only time they catch the eye is when the males of some species flash a brightly coloured chin flap, called a dewlap, at each other and potential mates.
Several species are closely associated with fresh water. The water anole (Anolis aquaticus) – whose name says it all – is one of these, never straying far from forest streams. Here, it makes an understated living, skittering after insects among a tangle of riparian roots, stems, leaves and rocks. Never reaching more than 7cm (excluding the tail), water anoles find themselves on the menu for birds, snakes and mammals – I’ve even found them tangled in the webs of orb spiders.
Other than lightning agility and exceptional camouflage, it turns out that these marvellous little lizards have yet another cunning way of evading capture that has only recently come to light. Dropping into the water is a common strategy in nature; many frogs do it, green iguanas do it, even pythons and nestling hoatzin birds do it. What sets the anole apart is that it can extend its subaquatic stay by more than a quarter of an hour by breathing underwater – or more accurately, re-breathing.
The moment the water anole submerges, it transforms into a mercurial lizard, enshrouded in a thin layer of air due to the rough
