Another in the series of non-native anole species in south Florida. I saw many of these within the gates of a fancy-schmancy housing complex in pricey Key Biscayne; they were living the high life. Each anole was initially head-down on the trunk of a large ornamental palm, a couple of feet off the ground. When they saw me with my camera, each turned head-up and rushed up into the fronds.

This one is a male, with a slight crest along its spine. Females have no crest at all.

These largish anoles are not native to Hispaniola either. As the subspecies name suggests, they made the journey over from nearby Puerto Rico. They are well established in southeastern Hispaniola, at least as common as the similarly-sized native large-headed anole.

These two both have at least a small crest, and so are both males. You can see how much the crest height varies even among adult males.

I chased around a pair of these large anoles for twenty minutes or so. They never left the tree they were in, but they circled around it a dozen times or so, and climbed up high out of reach a few times too.

This crested anole is showing off an attractive dorsal pattern.

Here's another one in the same area a couple of years later, with another attractive dorsal pattern. I suppose these last two could be yet another non-native anole species in South Florida, but I think they're just interesting variant forms.

It seems I have a special kind of curse whereby I am doomed to take pictures of Puerto Rican Crested Anoles perching vertically on small tree trunks in Red Road Linear Park every few years.