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Habitat and Distribution
The native range of the brown anole extends over much of the Caribbean, including Jamaica, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and other countries. Currently, they are considered an invasive species in parts of Florida in the United States, including the Florida Keys, Dade County, Broward County, and Palm Beach County as of 1985. Today, their range has extended as far as Georgia and to parts of Mexico. It is believed that these lizards were unintentionally brought to the area in cargo shipments for the Caribbean, as well as an intentional release of approximately 100 individuals in 1941. Due to their invasiveness, they are often the dominant reptile species in a given environment. The brown anole tends to live on the ground, avoiding trees and preferring to live in smaller plants and shrubs and is found in both urban and suburban areas. When the weather is warm, the brown anole can be found basking. When it is cold, they prefer sheltered areas.

Conservation
While the brown anole is an invasive species in the United States, they likely do provide some benefits to their ecosystems. Because they eat predominantly arthropods, they may keep populations of spiders at appropriate levels. There has been research that suggests that local spider populations depend directly on the population of the brown anole.

In habitats they share with the green anole, the brown anole dominates and shrinks the population of the green anole. They will also occasionally eat hatchlings of the green anole, further putting pressure on their populations.

Phylogeny
The brown anole belongs to the family and genus, Datyloidae and Anolis, respectively. The most closely related species to Anolis sagrei is Alonis Nelsoni, also called Nelson's Anole.

Male-Male Competition
Studies suggest that male brown anoles exhibit territoriality over ground below perches that they rest on. When the male anole other males in its ground territory, it is very likely to put on displays to attempt to intimidate the competitor. If, however, the competitor presents itself on the same perch as the male or at roughly the same height, the male is much more likely to attack the competitor. It is therefore hypothesized that the male brown anole uses its perch to surveil its territory, but is not likely to leave the perch to fight off competitors, as doing so would be costly. Additionally, research shows that the success of an individual male anole in competition with another is dependent on its size relative to its competitor. The size of a male also correlates with the height of their perch; that is, larger males are more often found on higher perches and smaller males on lower ones. Different specific confrontational behaviors are also exhibited by different sized males: larger ones more often initiate conflict and smaller ones more often nod their head towards larger anoles. It has been shown that the loss of a male brown anoles' tail has little to no effect on the size of the territory it protects or dominance patterns between male brown anoles.

Habitat Migration
Under certain circumstances, brown anoles will leave their current territory and migrate to a new one. Males migrate to new territories in response to male-male competition, with smaller males being more likely to migrate. The distance that a male migrates is negatively correlated with their size relative to other males; large males travel shorter distances to new territories and small males travel longer distances to new territories. Female brown anoles do not show an association betwen size and probability of migration or migration distance. Instead, females in territories with a high density of other females are more likely to move to territories with lower densities of other females. Generally, individuals, regardless of sex, prefer to remain in their original territory as migrating poses predation risks and energetic costs.

Reproduction
In a given habitat, female brown anoles reproduce in the warmer parts of the year. The brood size of a single female brown anole is one egg, which it lays in damp environments. The female lays its eggs roughly 2 weeks apart from each other, resulting in a total of 15 to 18 eggs in a single breeding season. The breeding season of a female extends slightly longer than that of a male, as the female is capable of storing sperm for a short time. When a juvenile anole is born, usually in June, it is completely independent from its parents. Sexual maturation of both males and females occurs within a year of hatching, so an individual can participate in the mating season following its birth.

When a female anole is prepared for mating, it begins by itself visible to the male whose territory it is in. When mating occurs, the male grabs on to the back on the females neck with its mouth, so prior to mating, a female with bend it's neck such that it is more visible and accessible by the male, indicating that it is ready for procreation. If the male decides to reproduce, it will begin mating with the female, which usually last from 30 to 60 minutes. Males indicate that they are available for mating by extending their dewlap and bobbing their head.

Parental Care
While it is unknown exactly what kind of parental care the brown anole provides to its offspring, the green anole provides no parental care to its offspring and is closely related to the brown anole. As such, the brown anole displays no reproductive division of labor past the mating event and displays no cooperative brood care.

Enemies
Know predators of the brown anole include broached skinks, snakes, birds, and occasionally other species of anoles. More often than not, brown anoles eaten by other anoles are juvenile.

Protective Behavior
The coloration of the brown anole allows it to easily blend in with its surroundings, making it difficult for predators to spot. The brown anole has a detachable tail that can be detached if the anole is grabbed by the tail by a predator or used as a distraction, as it twitches after detaching. The tail grows back afterwards, albeit smaller and a duller color.

Mating
Male anoles have a flap that extends below their neck called a "dewlap". Dewlap extension occurs alongside a number of behaviors exhibited by the brown anole, namely during courtship. An experiment by Richard Tokarz, an experimental group of male brown anoles underwent a surgery that rendered them unable to extend their dewlaps; a control group of male anoles were subject to the same surgery, but without the final step, so they retained the ability to extend their dewlap. Males and females were then put together in an enclosure; the experimental males took more time to begin mating when in the presence of females and mating took longer. Control males were more quick to mate and mated more quickly.

A separate study suggests that the dominant male in a territory is more influential over the mating partners of a female than female mate choice. During observation, females that mated with multiple males did so because dominance over a territory transferred between males, while the female remained in the same territory. There were no observations of female brown anoles seeking out different males or entering a new territory.

Additionally, female brown anoles are more likely to participate in mating behaviors in the presence of precipitation.

Hindlimb Length
When raised in terraria with surfaces differing in width (wide or narrow), brown anoles wide-surface terraria grew longer hindlimb than their narrow-surface terraria counterparts. Brown anoles demonstrate phenotypic plasticity in this trait, akin to very rapid evolution.

Dewlap
Nearly all species of Anole, including the Anolis sagrei, have a dewlap on their throat. The dewlap can be used as a means of identifying specfic species within the Anolis family. This is useful for not only mate selection between male anoles, but also to ensure the female is indeed mating with an individual within their own species. The dewlap of the Anolis sagrei is typically a shade of red or yellow, while the rest of an individual is brown. The extension of the dewlap is controlled by the ceratobranchials II, a bone below the throat. The size and color of a species's dewlap has been shown to vary with the light of their environments and color of their body, respectively; specifically, dimmer environments elicit larger dewlaps and duller body colors elicit brighter dewlap colors. In the brown anole, dewlap color is not dependent on an individual's consumption of lutein and zeaxanthin, pigments typically used as colorants in species that display color on their body. Dewlaps are believed to be involved in mate selection, as well as communication between individual brown anoles.