Bimini, Bahamas: Eight taxa left to find!

We began the next morning of our Bimini reunion by seeking additional Bimini Green Anoles.

We hoped, but failed, to photograph a displaying male. Bimini curlytails were already out sunning on sidewalks and garden walls. The cross-channel ferry to the South Island was nearing. It was our plan to return to the airport and work our way southward to the tip of the island, searching for twig (also called ghost) anoles, geckos and whatever else we could find.

As it turned out the twig anoles, Anolis angusticeps oligaspis, were rather easily found as they thermoregulated in the morning sunshine at the tips of slender, sparsely leafed, twigs.

Of the two sphaerodactylines on the island we found only the Reef Gecko, Sphaerodactylus notatus amaurus. They were fairly common under leaf litter and human debris. Despite finding several fallen down dwellings the “whatever elses” were hard to come by and consisted only of a few Bahama Tarantulas, Cyrtopholis bonhotei. That left us with eight taxa to find.

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.