Over the past week, we introduced outgoing Glor Lab post-graduate researcher to anole research.  One of Shea’s main tasks was to record light readings from perches where lizards were observed along the Rio Bani.  These readings are necessary to determine if anoles with different dewlap colors and patterns tend to display in different light environments (a prerequisite for models of speciation involving sensory drive).  Shea performed this task fearlessly, as illustrated by the photographs above, in which Shea can be seen taking measurements just inches from active wasp nests (nests are in white circles).  Although Shea was often most directly in harms way, Anthony Geneva managed to exceed Shea’s sting total by wandering directly into a nest while searching for data loggers placed along a steep embankment.  In fact, Shea’s only string of the trip came as a result of running through Anthony’s wasp cloud in an effort to catch a giant anole that Anthony disturbed from its perch during his panicked retreat.

Anthony Geneva gathers data for his thesis on speciation in anoles along the Rio Bani in the Dominican Republic.  These photos were taken yesterday as Anthony (with assistance from Shea Lambert in the left photo) was gathering ecological data from a complex of three sympatric trunk anoles.