"Poor thing," I thought, "he's so weak he can barely move."
Then he sprinted up my arm and onto my shoulder. Running headlong towards the face of an apparent predator doesn't seem like a good survival tactic, but it was hilarious. Watching that little anole face moving so quickly towards my nose really made me grin.
I ran outside before he could leap off. He stayed put. I leaned against a wooden post, and he slowly ambled off. He even stuck around to pose for a portrait.
One post away, his vardøger seemed satisfied.
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Updated:
I forgot to mention the scientific name. The Carolina anole (or Green anole) is Anolis carolinensis.
15 comments:
Love that bluish eye. What a handsome creature, and a very fine close encounter.
I think I would faint with happiness if that happened to me! What a lovely picture of him - we have very few lizard-y things in England, and when you do spot them they whisk away pretty sharpish!
very purty!
I love the Green Anoles, such a great looking reptile!
I love anoles and used to have a lot of them where I lived in Birmingham. Hearing you talk of Anatoli made me hopeful that we will still see some.
Was this recently that he did this? I would have thought it would be way too cold for him right now.
A favorite yard critter here. They have a lot of personality for the reptile bunch.
Here's what I love: The way you can expand my vocabulary with a new word and a mind-blowing concept. Much obliged, Karen!
that would have freaked me out.
(I probably would have screamed and he would have rushed into my mouth)
Close encounters of the creature kind! Very wonderful!
Oh, I love to learn cool new words!
We once created a habitat of sorts for an anole in our bathroom windowsill. We never captured him -- just set out some sticks and stones, bamboo shoots and water. We fed him smalls bits of fruit and insects. He hung around for a surprisingly long time. We kept thinking he had run away, and then we'd see that he was just pretending to be a leaf.
Beautiful fellow! We have further north of you. You can find them near Guntersville dam and in the rocks at Keel mtn preserve-pretty much any rocky areas that get sun. I think they extend as far north as the Chattanooga area. Great sculpture!
I love anoles...they have great personalities.
Thanks for teaching me a new word...I had to look up vardøger & hope to throw it into a conversation soon to impress my friends :D
Thanks y'all, sorry I was not back here to answer comments any sooner. It's a busy time of year!
The vardøger concept is cool, huh? I had started to go with "doppelganger" but I wasn't sure if everyone was familiar with that term or not. But if everybody knew it already, they'd roll their eyes at my linking to it, you know? Which is worse, automatically assuming that people know stuff when they don't, or being pedantic and linking to something that everyone already knows?
I've known "doppelganger" for a long time because an artist friend used to always say "my doppelganger stared at me from across the room..." (Lots of self-portraits.) I hear it a lot more often now, but didn't have a good feel for how common it might be.
I was trying to look up a good link anyway, and came across "vardøger" instead, which I ended up liking better. Plus nobody (except maybe Norwegians hopefully) would roll their eyes, since it's not exactly a household word. So, that is how I come up with half the stuff here. I would like to pretend that I sit around reading Norse mythology all day, but I don't. :)
This photo was taken just a few days before the post. It had warmed up a little, almost t-shirt weather really, so I wasn't worried about putting him outside.
So cute! He was probably just trying to soak up some of your body heat, unafraid because he can tell you're critter-friendly. :) BTW, if you spot one with a skinny tail and thighs, that would be weakness/malnutrition. That lil' bugger looks plenty healthy.
very cool! the ones near me won't hold still for the camera. actually, i think he's taunting me.
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