Polychrus acutirostrisSpix, 1825

Brazilian Bush Anole

Photograph by E Santos Ortega, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A tree-dwelling, day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 150 mm snout to vent.

Reptilia › Squamata › Polychrotidae › Polychrus

Grows to: 150mm; greatest recorded
Eats: Omnivorous
Active: Diurnal
Lives: Arboreal

What is known

40 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: 2014
Population trend: Stable

The animal itself

Limbs: Four legs
Venomous: No
Fangs: None
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild: 35°C95 °F
Body temp in the wild · mean, when active: 35°C

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded: 150mm6 in
Length snout to vent · adult female mean: 116.3mm4.5 in
Largest female · snout to vent: 116.3mm4.5 in
Hatchling length · snout to vent: 37.5mm1.5 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent: 37.5mm1.5 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed: 105.7g3.7 oz
Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured: 1.69g0.06 oz

How it lives

Diet: Omnivorous
How it hunts: Mixed
Active: Diurnal
Where it lives: Arboreal
Habitat: Forest, Savanna
Biome: Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Region: Neotropic
Mainland or island: Mainland
Elevation · above sea level: 30–1090m
Range size: 6,733,869km²

Breeding

Reproduction: Oviparous
Sex decided by: Genes, XX/XY
Average clutch: 13.25eggs
Eggs or young per clutch: 4–31eggs
Mean clutch: 4.5–22eggs
Clutches a year: 1per year
First breeds at: 8.5–9months

Naming and history

Suborder: Sauria
Infraorder: Pleurodonta
Subspecies: No
Described by: Spix
Moved to another genus · since it was first described: No
Described in: 1825
Type locality: Brazil

Keeping one

23.5 in × 15 in × 23.5 in(60 × 38 × 60 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 in (150 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 95 °F (35 °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.

12kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 106 g, the heaviest recorded for Brazilian Bush 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 at hatching
— 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
— 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
— Red List criteria
— Active season · shortest recorded
— Active season · longest recorded
— Density · lowest recorded
— Density · highest recorded
— Home range · largest recorded
— Active in

Others in Polychrotidae

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). Polychrus acutirostris. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/polychrus-acutirostris

@misc{polychrus_acutirostris_2026,
  title  = {Polychrus acutirostris},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/polychrus-acutirostris}
}

Sources

Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.