One of the key components to a lot of my work is habitat use, essentially where a individual, population, or species choose to be in a given environment.

Habitat use is essentially a specific behavioural trait, and in Anoles behaviour and morphology are closely linked, especially where ecomorphs are concerned. So more more recent work, as part of my Postdoc with the Frishkoff lab is focused on habitat use within the different ecomorphs of the Greater Antilles, as well as how habitat use differs across the islands in general. Previously (my PhD) I focused on how rapid shifts in habitat use, cause changes in morphology in the next generation.

Habitat use in the Greater Antillean Anoles and their Ecomorphs.

How habitat use changes after exposure to novel environments.

We released numerous lizards onto different islands in the Panama Canal. Upon colonisation of these islands, slender anole lizards rapidly shifted their habitat use, moving to lower and broader perches compared to their mainland counterparts. This behavioural change was observed almost immediately - within 6 weeks!
We attributed this shift to ecological release on the species-poor islands, where the lizards experienced reduced interspecific competition and predation:

• Available Habitat Differences: Islands generally offered larger available perch diameters and higher overall vegetation density than the mainland. Notably, lizards used perches even broader than the average available, suggesting a behavioural preference rather than just conforming to availability.
• Foraging Efficiency: Perching lower likely maximises prey capture efficiency for slender anoles, which primarily feed on leaf litter arthropods.
• Reduced Competition: On the mainland, other ground-dwelling lizard species may compete for lower perches, driving slender anoles higher. On islands, even the presence of Anolis gaigei did not prevent this shift, as A. gaigei prefers higher perches.
• Reduced Predation: A lower diversity of terrestrial predators (snakes, mammals, birds) on the islands made lower perches safer. This was further supported by island lizards exhibiting shorter flight initiation distances (FID), allowing observers to approach more closely before fleeing, indicating lower perceived predation risk.

These rapid behavioural adjustments are consistent with the "behavioural drive" hypothesis, which posits that behaviour can initiate adaptive changes in non-behavioural traits. Indeed, these habitat use shifts led to rapid morphological divergence in the subsequent generation, with traits like hindlimb length increasing and toe pad size and head depth decreasing, consistent with biomechanical predictions for lizards using lower, broader perches.