Tree Islands with Brown Anoles
This post was written by guest blogger James Stroud, graduate student in the Feely lab (http://www2.fiu.edu/~kfeeley/). ___________________________________________________________________________ A recent trip to the Everglades with Palm botanist Sara Edelman was meant to provide a welcome break from studying for qualifying exams, and give her the opportunity to further educate me on all things palm (which was previously limited to determining which lizards in Miami appear to live on them). After spending the morning locating individuals of her study species, the native and state-threatened Paurotis palm ( Acoelorrhaphe wrightii ), we had received very little wildlife luck (which was the true reason for me volunteering to 'help'). From past visits, I had found brown anoles ( Anolis sagrei ) at every car park along the Everglades National Park road down to Flamingo, likely hitch-hiking unwittingly on visitors cars, but to my knowledge they had yet to disperse convinci...