Yup - you heard that right, these pervasive brown lizards are not Florida natives, but heck, we're all about diversity these days, and they are such adorable and useful little critters....

I've always thought lizards were really neat critters. I understand that many people disagree.

Which is worse, roaches or lizards?

If your answer is roaches, this Florida brown anole, Anolis sagrei, could become your new favorite invasive species.

besides they've spread all over Florida and into Georgia now; there's nothing we can do but accept them, right? It's sad that the beautiful green anoles are vanishing though. I remember seeing them a lot years ago, but I can't even find one to take a picture of down here in southern Florida now.

    Think about that spread for a moment. It's widely reported that they came in through the ports in the 1940's (as I browsed for that date, the best write-up I found on these anoles that included it was an article by Todd Campbell.) So, if Florida is roughly 400 miles long, there are 63,360 inches in a mile,  and my quick at a glance estimate of the length of a typical anole is about 6 inches, these little critters walked 4,224,000 body lengths in less than an average human lifetime. See, sometimes it is fun to play with the numbers, even if the answer is somewhat meaningless...

Look, another anole. Do you think it's wishing it had caught that yummy meal instead? Fresh wiggling roach, just what every anole loves for breakfast, and the roach did wiggle! I'm sorry I couldn't video this event, because the still photos really don't do it justice.

I despise roaches! After watching this anole eat one, I like lizards more than ever - they're like little soldiers patrolling my yard to protect us from worse invaders.

Gulp, "Yum!" The anole swallowed the roach whole.

In this last photograph, another brown anole is starting in on a fine meal of Wolf Spider.