Species:

Anolis carolinensis

Green Anole

Some other names for this species:

Carolina Anole, American Chameleon

Subspecies I've seen:
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Northern Green Anole
A. c. carolinensis 		thumbnail
Southern Green Anole
A. c. seminolus
Subspecies:

Anolis carolinensis carolinensis

Northern Green Anole

Sighting:
December 26, 1998
Coral Gables, Miami-Dade County, Florida
Northern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis carolinensis)
Green Anoles are the only anole species native to Florida, but they're getting harder and harder to find what with all the competition from the hardy and prolific little brown anoles. This one was in a Coral Gables backyard.
Sighting:
December 30, 1998
Shark Valley, Everglades National Park, Monroe County, Florida
Northern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis carolinensis)
Here's another green anole in the Everglades. Green anoles are such elegant creatures.
Sighting:
January 3, 1999
Bill Sadowski Park, Perrine, Miami-Dade County, Florida
Northern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis carolinensis)
This one is right in the middle of shedding its skin. Green anoles can turn brown, an ability that earned them the confusing misnomer "American chameleon" (they aren't chameleons; they're anoles!). Brown anoles cannot, however, turn green.

Anole expert Dr. Ann Paterson told me that a lookalike (and closely related) Cuban anole species, Anolis porcatus, has been found in south Florida and is possibly spreading. So, the pictures I have here of A. carolinensis in south Florida may really be A. porcatus instead.

Sighting:
November 25, 2000
Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory garden, Hilo, Hawaii County, Hawaii
Northern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis carolinensis)
Northern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis carolinensis)
Not only does the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory have yummy chocolate-covered Macadamia nuts, but its garden area provides home for a thriving population of introduced green anoles. What more could you ask for? The one in the first picture was drinking water from the leaf's surface. The one in the second picture seems to be pondering how to snatch the tasty snack on its back.
Sighting:
February 7, 2004
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Key Largo, Monroe County, Florida
Northern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis carolinensis)
Back in Florida, here's a photogenic juvenile green anole posing on a sea grape leaf.
Sighting:
April 19, 2004
Willow Pond Nature Trail, Fort Clinch State Park, Nassau County, Florida
Northern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis carolinensis)
You just gotta love that green-on-green camouflage.
Sighting:
December 25, 2006
Coral Gables, Miami-Dade County, Florida
Northern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis carolinensis)
It's always nice, though unfortunately increasingly rare, to spot an actual native lizard in southern Florida, amidst all the non-native brown anoles, bark anoles, crested anoles, green iguanas, spiny-tailed iguanas, basilisks, etc.
Sighting:
April 11, 2008
Nags Head Woods Preserve, Dare County, North Carolina
Northern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis carolinensis)
Anolis carolinensis is named after the Carolinas, so I was happy to get a chance to see a few in the Carolinas. This one might look like it lost a fight with an angry cat, but in reality it was just shedding its skin. I was interested to see that it evaded me by hopping away on the ground, rather than by running up the nearest tree as I would have expected from my experience with Floridian green anoles.
Sighting:
April 9, 2010
Palmetto State Park, Gonzales County, Texas
Northern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis carolinensis)
Since my wife's family lives in Florida and we live in California, we have driven through Texas several times on our way across the country. However, we have typically taken this route in the late winter, when temperatures are too low for reptiles, and even at other times we've never stopped to see the sights. That is my excuse for why this humble green anole is my first ever herp photo from Texas.
Sighting:
March 19, 2011
Mahogany Hammock Boardwalk, Everglades National Park, Miami-Dade County, Florida
Northern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis carolinensis)
This green anole kept a careful watch on me. It joined only a handful of visible lizards on this cool day in the Everglades.
Subspecies:

Anolis carolinensis seminolus

Southern Green Anole

Sighting:
April 4, 2004
Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, Collier County, Florida
Southern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis seminolus)
Most green anoles have strawberry-red dewlaps, but some populations in southwest Florida have gray or greenish dewlaps. These populations were recently designated to be a separate subspecies, Anolis carolinensis seminolus. Unfortunately these anoles are just as hard to find amidst the far more plentiful Brown Anoles as their northern cousins. Here's a pretty individual from Fakahatchee Strand that had a faint row of light blue dots down its side.
Sighting:
April 8, 2004
Oscar Scherer State Park, Sarasota County, Florida
Southern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis seminolus)
Southern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis seminolus)
Here's a Southern Anole that showed off its distinguishing dewlap for me.
Sighting:
April 5, 2008
Corkscrew Swamp Wildlife Sanctuary, Collier County, Florida
Southern Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis seminolus)
This anole had some particularly nice blue speckles on its neck and shoulders.