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Squamata · AnolidaeEntry 1,285 of 21,572
Bronze Anole, Anolis aeneus

Reptilia · Squamata

Anolis aeneusGray, 1840

Bronze Anole

Photograph by Paul Prior, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A tree-dwelling, day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 80 mm snout to vent.

Also called Grenada Bush Anole.

Once published as Dactyloa aeneus — those names reach this page.

ReptiliaSquamataAnolidaeAnolis

Grows to
80mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Omnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives up to
6.7years
Body length across Anolidae

Longer than 74% of all species in Anolidae anyone has measured.

74% of 423 species are smaller26% larger
33.5 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest191 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 33.5 to 191 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

39 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant
Conservation status
Least Concern
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2015

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
6.7years

Myhrvold, Baldridge, Chan, Sivam, Freeman, and Ernest, 2015, Ecology, 96:3109-3109

Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
31.55°C89 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
29.1–34°C84–93 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
80mm3.25 in

max 80 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
46.5mm1.75 in
Largest female · snout to vent
46.5mm1.75 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Hatchling length · snout to vent
22mm0.9 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
22.5mm0.9 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
10.59g0.37 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

How it lives

Diet
Omnivorous

Omnivorous/arthropods and 2.3% plants (Simmons et al. 2005), "predominantly insectivorous, but larger individuals on Grenada engage in herbivory (Schoener and Gorman 1968)." (Quinn et al. 2010), see lots of details in Henderson and Powell 2018 (mostly insects, opportunistic omnivores, but dietary description is ~1.2 pages [203-204] long), arthropods (Murphy et al. 2018)

How it hunts
Sit and wait

(inferred from Henderson and Powell 2009), sit and wait but may pursue prey on the ground (Murphy et al. 2018)

Active
Diurnal

e.g., Quinn et al. 2010: "dawn to dusk", Henderson and Powell 2018, Murphy et al. 2018

Where it lives
Arboreal
Habitat
Forest, Shrubland
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Found only on islands
Elevation · above sea level
88–1234m
Range size
422km²
Density
130–9360per hectare
Home range · largest recorded
22.8m2

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
1eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1eggs

median clutch size 2 (http://www.anoleannals.org/2013/06/27/fill-in-the-blank-obscure-anole-life-history-traits/)

Mean clutch
1eggs
Clutches a year
9–12per year

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Pleurodonta
Subspecies
No
Described by
Gray
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1840
Type locality
Grenada

Keeping one

12.5 in × 7.75 in × 12.5 in(32 × 20 × 32 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.

Lives in vegetation, so height and climbing structure matter more than floor space.

Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.

From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 3.25 in (80 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 89 °F (31.6 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.

Feeding

A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.

Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.

2kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 11 g, the heaviest recorded for Bronze Anole — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
  • Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Clutches in a year
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • Age at first breeding · female
  • Mature from · youngest recorded
  • Mature by · oldest recorded
  • Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Active in

Others in Anolidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Anolis aeneus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-aeneus

@misc{anolis_aeneus_2026,
  title  = {Anolis aeneus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-aeneus}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
  4. Moura, M. R. et al. TetrapodTraits: a database of 33,281 tetrapod species. Used under CC BY 4.0. Observed values only; this encyclopedia does not publish its imputed predictions.