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Squamata · AnolidaeEntry 1,436 of 21,572
Jamaican anole, Anolis garmani

Reptilia · Squamata

Anolis garmaniStejneger, 1899

Jamaican anole

Photograph by Ben Machado, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A tree-dwelling, day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 138 mm snout to vent.

Also called Jamaica Giant Anole, Jamaican Giant Anole.

Once published as Norops garmani — those names reach this page.

ReptiliaSquamataAnolidaeAnolis

Grows to
138mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Omnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives up to
10years
Body length across Anolidae

Longer than 94% of all species in Anolidae anyone has measured.

94% of 423 species are smaller6% 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
Population trend
Stable

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
10years

Henderson & Powell 2009: to 10

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
138mm5.5 in

max 138 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
81.1mm3.25 in
Largest female · snout to vent
81.1mm3.25 in

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

Hatchling length · snout to vent
27mm1 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
27mm1 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
52.67g1.9 oz

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

How it lives

Diet
Omnivorous

Omnivorous: insects, lizards, 37.5-40% fruits (Herrel et al. 2004, Schwartz and Henderson 1991)

How it hunts
Sit and wait

Active foraging / Sit and Wait (Cooper et al. 2013)

Active
Diurnal
Where it lives
Arboreal
Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year
12months
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Found only on islands
Highest it lives · above sea level
1200m
Range size
9880km²
Density
57–96.1per hectare

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
1eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–2eggs

frequently 2 eggs (Henderson & Powell 2009)

Mean clutch
1eggs
Clutches a year
18per year
First breeds at
4–15months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Pleurodonta
Subspecies
No
Described by
Stejneger
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1899
Type locality
Jamaica

Keeping one

21.5 in × 13.5 in × 21.5 in(55 × 35 × 55 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 5.5 in (138 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Jamaican anole. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

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.

7kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 53 g, the heaviest recorded for Jamaican 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
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Clutches in a year
  • 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
  • Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Red List criteria
  • 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 garmani. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-garmani

@misc{anolis_garmani_2026,
  title  = {Anolis garmani},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-garmani}
}

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.