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Squamata · AnolidaeEntry 1,595 of 21,572
Cuban Green Anole, Anolis porcatus

Reptilia · Squamata

Anolis porcatusGray, 1840

Cuban Green Anole

Identification not confirmed. One observer recorded this animal as this species and no one has since agreed, so the photograph may show a different animal.

Photograph by Elizabeth Green, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A tree-dwelling, day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 95 mm snout to vent.

ReptiliaSquamataAnolidaeAnolis

Grows to
95.1mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Omnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives up to
5.3years
Body length across Anolidae

Longer than 85% of all species in Anolidae anyone has measured.

85% of 423 species are smaller15% 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
2016
Population trend
Stable

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
5.3years

Rogner 1997: male still fertile at 5 and 3 months

Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
32.1°C90 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
31.5–32.7°C89–91 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
95.1mm3.75 in

max 95.1 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
54.6mm2.25 in
Largest female · snout to vent
54.6mm2.25 in

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

Hatchling length · snout to vent
22.4mm0.9 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
21.9mm0.9 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
17.61g0.62 oz

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

How it lives

Diet
Omnivorous

Omnivorous: Mostly insectivorous, also fruit (Schettino 1999), guava, arthropods, hatchlings of own species (Henderson and Powell 2009 see also de Armas 2021), nectar (Gandia et al. 2018), "The diet of these lizards consists mainly of insects such as ants, beetles, butterflies, cicadas, cockroaches, crickets, dragonflies, flies, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, thrips, and moths", but also scorpions, earthworms, tadpoles, smaller anoles, conspecific hatchlings, nectar and/or pollen, "as well as ripe fruits like guavas (Psidium guajaba), custard apples (Annona squamosa), and Barbados cherries (Malpighia punicifolia)" and tree sap (Armas and Iturriaga 2019), Orcid flower (de Armas 2019), nectar (de Armas 2020)

How it hunts
Active foraging

Banfi et al. 2023

Active
Diurnal
Where it lives
Arboreal
Habitat
Forest, Shrubland
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year
12months
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Found only on islands
Elevation · above sea level
124–223m
Range size
94,983km²

Breeding

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

1 (Garcia-Padron 2021)

Mean clutch
1eggs

Garcia-Padron 2021

Clutches a year
18per year

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Pleurodonta
Subspecies
Anolis porcatus aracelyae PEREZ-BEATO 1996 Anolis porcatus porcatus GRAY 1840
Described by
Gray
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1840
Type locality
Cuba

Keeping one

15 in × 9.25 in × 15 in(38 × 24 × 38 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 3.75 in (95.1 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 90 °F (32.1 °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.

3kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 18 g, the heaviest recorded for Cuban Green 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
  • Red List criteria
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest 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 porcatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-porcatus

@misc{anolis_porcatus_2026,
  title  = {Anolis porcatus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-porcatus}
}

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.