Pat’s Wildways: Lizard Tails

When I travel anywhere I am always on the lookout for sights and experiences that I can relate to my local readers in Florida. And there is always something. This time, I’m reminiscing about wish willies in Belize and a hint they have given me about closer examination of our own lizards.

Wish willies are a species of iguana (Ctenosaura similis) also known as the black iguana or black spiny-tailed iguana in Belize, but people there do not think of them as iguanas at all. These large lizards live under houses and sidewalks and other ground structures, and are often seen running across backyards and roads. Carolyn Westby, a manager at our usual hotel in Placencia had a long discussion with me once about them. I told her they were a type of iguana and she objected. “There is only one kind of iguana here!” referring to the conspicuous green iguanas (Iguana iguana) that inhabit trees and shrubs and are vegetarians, very different from the carnivorous and scavenging black spiny-tailed iguanas. These iguanas are another creature entirely, and despite their taxonomic relations, I can see why locals do not liken them to the iguana in the trees that everyone knows and loves. Wish willies have no such love, and some people in Belize give them a wide berth. They are not edible, unlike green iguanas, and are known to stand their ground threateningly when approached by people. With their size, that’s reason enough to avoid interacting with them.

When I started photographing wish willies I noticed something strange about them — they often had missing or deformed tails. One day I was sitting with my friend Kelly Coblenz on her porch and a wish willy entered her yard. Kelly had no qualms about tossing it some cat food — lizards need to eat too! But then we noticed its tail, short and misshapen. I started looking at all my wish willy photos and sure enough, a number of them had strange tails.

OK, so the zoologist in me started investigating. It didn’t take long until the facts revealed themselves to me again. Some lizards can lose their tail and then it grows back. This is a survival strategy that lets them escape from predators. In short order their tail grows back, first as a column of cartilage, which then develops muscle tissue as well, leading to a new appendage that looks a bit different than the original but is serviceable enough. What we were seeing in the wish willy population in Placencia was the aftermath of violent encounters, with dogs, mostly, I guess, since that is the main predator roaming the dirt roads of Placencia where the lizards thrive.

So, back at home in Fernandina I began closely scrutinizing the Cuban and green anoles in my own backyard. Surely there must be some lizards here that have also lost and are regrowing their tails? I’ve put out the word to my naturalist friends too. “Please find me an anole with a deformed tail.” But no one could. And I was not about to catch an anole and cut off its tail to see what happens.

Finally I found one, then two in my own backyard. The first Cuban (aka brown) anole I found had a nearly regrown tail and it was clear which part had been regenerated since it looked different than the rest of the tail. Great! But better yet, a week or so later I found an even better example. This particular Cuban anole hadn’t yet regrown its tail. So I named him “Stumpy” and now I can watch the regeneration in real time as he chases prey around my flowerpots most mornings. Fun!

Check out the anoles in your own yard. These little reptiles are territorial and stay in particular areas of a yard, and you can easily identify individuals by their distinctive markings, especially on the Cuban anoles. Sadly, the green anoles are more uniform in color and harder to tell apart but they, too are often in the same spots.

And if you do find one with a missing tail, the real fun begins, if you watch its tail regenerate from day to day. It may take less than a month for a full tail to be restored, another miracle of nature visible in your own backyard! It took a trip to Belize for me to finally notice this tail regeneration. But now you can too.

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com