Anole Battle on Monday

Remember the new guy from yesterday? The unusual looking big male anole? It turns out he’s a regular, ordinary brown anole with softer coloring and markings. I saw him flashing his dewlap this morning and it was a typical brown anole dewlap, red-orange with a yellow edge. That was all I needed to identify him. Here he is just after he’d extended his dewlap, but you can still see the red and orange mixed with yellow on his neck.

He’s a handsome guy, but he’s turning out to be kind of a bully. He seems to have decided he wants to claim the area outside the back door. He scared the red-headed adventurous anole off the garden clipper handles where she likes to sit. A little later he started a big fight with the nice easy-going male anole who’s been hanging around that area for quite awhile. I walked outside after the fight had started, but I feel pretty sure the assertive new guy initiated the altercation.

The two of them had locked jaws. The new guy is the one on the left, and the anole who’s been there for awhile is the one with the darker, more contrasting black and white colors.

It was looking like a pretty even match for awhile, maybe a slight advantage to the guy who’s been around for awhile. Occasionally they’d push at each other with their feet while maintaining their jaw grips.

Finally they broke apart, but the fight wasn’t over. Now the new guy is on the right, the more brownish anole with more yellow around his eyes.

They quickly latched onto each other again.

Then the new guy made his move and got the other anole’s entire snout in his jaw grip.

The other anole had a scrape on top of his head at this point, while the new guy held on and continued his attack. The new guy looks like a little dinosaur here.

Finally they broke apart again–new guy’s on the left now.

The other anole ran away and the new guy grinned triumphantly at the camera. He seems to have picked up a Sophie hair or two during the battle.

The other anole, looking a little depressed, retreated toward the air conditioning unit about 6 feet away.

The new guy sat on a pot rim and caught his breath.

But wait! The new guy spotted the other anole on the air conditioning unit and ran over there at full speed. Look at the big crest and pushed out throat on him.

So the new guy chased the other anole off the air conditioning unit. The other guy didn’t even attempt to resist.

The other anole ran down along the ground to the fence, climbed up, and continued along the fence and the gate until he was on the fence bordering my neighbor’s yard a good 25 feet away. He settled down there on a tree stump by the fence.

The new guy seems to have taken some injuries to his head and face too, but nothing he won’t survive. He plainly feels that he’s now the big boss of the territory outside the back door. He’s even giving me a warning look.