Harmless · Native to Puerto Rico · Introduced in Florida

Crested anole

Anolis cristatellus

Also called the Puerto Rican crested anole
Data updated November 2026

Male crested anole perched head-down on a tree trunk, with a jagged crest on its tail
Fig. 1 — Adult male on a trunk; many males carry a jagged crest along the tail.
Male crested anole extending a yellow-centered, orange-edged dewlap
Fig. 2 — The dewlap is usually yellow in the middle with a thick orange rim.

At a glance

A sturdy brown anole from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, where it is the most common lizard in towns and cities. It reached Miami in the 1970s and has lived there ever since, mostly in Miami-Dade County. Males often have a sawtooth crest on the tail and flash an orange-and-yellow throat fan.

01

Identification

Crested anoles are medium-sized, stocky anoles with fairly long limbs. Both sexes are light brown with darker brown markings that can be mottled, hourglass-shaped or striped along the back. Adult males are much bigger than females and many have a thin, jagged crest along the tail and sometimes the back, though the crest varies from place to place and some males have none. Females have smaller dewlaps and can be hard to tell from young males.

  1. 01Sawtooth tail crest. Many adult males have a jagged, fin-like crest on the tail.
  2. 02Orange-rimmed dewlap. Usually yellow in the center with a thick orange edge; some populations show a mostly yellow-orange fan.
  3. 03Head-down on trunks. Typically perches low on broad tree trunks, facing down toward the ground.

Commonly confused with

The brown anole is the closest lookalike in Miami. It is slightly smaller, and its dewlap is red-orange in the center with a thin yellow edge, the reverse of the crested anole’s yellow center and thick orange rim. Green anoles are usually bright green, slimmer and longer-snouted, and have a pink dewlap.

02

Size

03 in6 in9 in1 ft2 ft3 ft4 ft Adult male · body about 2.5 in (65 mm) plus tail

Lizard biologists measure anoles from snout to vent (the opening under the base of the tail), because tails are often broken. Adult males measure about 2 to 3 inches (50–75 mm) by that measure and adult females only about 1.2 to 1.8 inches (30–45 mm), so the sexes differ a lot in size. The tail adds well over the body length again; the tail in the drawing is approximate.

03

Range & habitat

Shaded tropical garden with broad tree trunks in Miami
Fig. 3 — Broad tree trunks in shady parks and gardens are typical crested anole perches.

The crested anole is native to the Puerto Rico bank: Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. There it is common in warm lowland forest, and at cooler, higher elevations it sticks mostly to forest edges and open, disturbed ground. It is the most common and abundant anole in Puerto Rico’s towns and cities.

It was introduced to the Miami area in the 1970s, with 1975 often given as the year, and in Florida it is found mainly in Miami-Dade County, including parks and gardens such as Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and Matheson Hammock. Elsewhere it has become established in Dominica, Trinidad, Saint Martin, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Mexico’s Yucatán, spread largely with the trade in tropical plants.

04

Diet & predators

Crested anoles are sit-and-wait hunters. A lizard watches the ground from a low perch on a trunk and darts down to grab prey before running back up. Insects and spiders make up most of the diet, but they also eat some fruit and will catch small vertebrates, including other anoles. In Miami they have been seen taken by a tricolored heron and by a hawk.

Feeds on

  • Insects
  • Spiders
  • Small fruits
  • Smaller anoles

Preyed on by

  • Herons
  • Hawks
  • Other birds
Small spider on tree bark
Prey — spiders and insects.
Little blue heron wading at the edge of a pond
Predator — heron.

05

Behavior & seasons

The crested anole is a “trunk-ground” anole: it usually perches on broad trunks about 2 meters (6½ feet) up or lower, often head-down, and comes to the ground mainly to catch prey or move between trees. Males defend perches and flash their dewlaps and bob their heads at rivals and females.

The species adjusts quickly to new climates. Miami winters average about 10°F cooler than Puerto Rico’s, and over roughly 35 generations the Miami lizards have come to tolerate cold about 3°F better than lizards from Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, city lizards tolerate higher temperatures than nearby forest lizards.

06

Reproduction

Crested anoles lay eggs. Like other anoles, females produce eggs one at a time at intervals through the warm months rather than in large clutches. Studies in Puerto Rico have found that how many eggs females produce varies with habitat disturbance over short distances, and that spikes of urban heat slow the development of embryos.

07

Conservation

The crested anole is assessed as Least Concern and is abundant across its native range, including in cities. In Florida it is an established non-native species, and Florida law prohibits releasing non-native animals.

Keep reading

Sources

Data updated November 2026 · How we build these pages