All Angles Creatures
Squamata · AnolidaeEntry 1,327 of 21,572
Western Bearded Anole, Anolis barbatus

Reptilia · Squamata

Anolis barbatusGarrido, 1982

Western Bearded Anole

Photograph by chloe ⋆˚꩜。, CC BY-SA, via iNaturalist

A tree-dwelling, day-active, plant-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 170 mm snout to vent.

Once published as Chamaeleolis barbatus, Xiphosurus barbatus — those names reach this page.

ReptiliaSquamataAnolidaeAnolis

Grows to
170mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Herbivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Arboreal
Body length across Anolidae

Longer than 97% of all species in Anolidae anyone has measured.

97% of 423 species are smaller3% 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

37 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
Near Threatened
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2016
Red List criteria
B1b(iii)

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
29.8°C86 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
27.1–32.5°C81–91 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
170mm6.75 in

max 170 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
122.7mm4.75 in
Largest female · snout to vent
122.7mm4.75 in

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

Hatchling length · snout to vent
47.5mm1.75 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
47.5mm1.75 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
97.27g3.4 oz

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

Body mass at hatchingmeasured
2.05g0.07 oz

How it lives

Diet
Herbivorous

Omnivorous (mostly Herbivorous, Schettino 1999, Leal and Losos 2000 report feeding on invertebrates - probably gastropods and insect larvae), see Henderson and Powell 2009, Herrel and Holanova 2008

How it hunts
Sit and wait

inferred from Henderson and Powell 2009

Active
Diurnal
Where it lives
Arboreal
Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Found only on islands
Highest it lives · above sea level
800m
Range size
538km²

Breeding

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

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Pleurodonta
Subspecies
No
Described by
Garrido
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1982
Type locality
Cuba

Keeping one

2 ft 3 in × 16.5 in × 2 ft 3 in(68 × 43 × 68 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 6.75 in (170 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 86 °F (29.8 °C).

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

Feeding

Prey size does not apply. A herbivore's diet is judged on fibre, on the ratio of calcium to phosphorus, and on avoiding plants high in oxalates.

The animal does not take prey items. This is established practice, not a measurement.

11kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 97 g, the heaviest recorded for Western Bearded 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
  • Longest recorded life
  • 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
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • 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
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Active in
  • Lowest it lives · above sea level

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 barbatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-barbatus

@misc{anolis_barbatus_2026,
  title  = {Anolis barbatus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-barbatus}
}

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.