Recent News
Environment scholarship winners announcedTuesday, September 27, 2016
The Bermuda Zoological Society has announced the recipients of this year’s Steinhoff/BZS Scholarship as Kahnae Bean, Shane Antonition and Khylah Rogers.
Rubis unveils anniversary charity promotion
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Rubis Energy Bermuda is celebrating its tenth anniversary with the “Fuelling 4 a Cause” charity promotion.
Ocean Tech
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Justifying Marine Protection
Turtle Tracked Traveling: Bermuda To Bahamas
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
A juvenile green sea turtle caught in Somerset Long Bay has made a successful trip to the Bahamas, with the Bermuda Turtle Project tracking the turtle over the course of its month-long journey spanning nearly 1,000 miles.
Model’s plea to save our skinks
Friday, September 23, 2016
When Mitchell Robinson was 15 his parents gave him a leopard gecko.
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Latest News
All the latest updates and news from the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, and Zoo, one of Bermuda's leading visitor attractions!
Jonathan Bell
Published Nov 2, 2017 at 8:00 am (Updated Nov 2, 2017 at 6:05 am)
The brown anole lizard in Bermuda (Photograph by James Stroud)
Bermuda’s endangered skinks are soon to cross paths with a thriving invasive species that already outnumbers the entire native population.
James Stroud of Florida International University said the brown anole lizard had been recorded “living in some of the highest densities of any terrestrial vertebrate on Earth”.
Dr Stroud’s report was shared with The Royal Gazette in the wake of an article on the lizard’s spread after the reptiles were spotted around Aberfeldy nursery in Paget.
The brown anole lizard in Bermuda (Photograph by James Stroud)
Other clusters of the foreign lizard were found on the grounds of Belco and a lumber yard at Mill Creek, both in Pembroke.
The report, with Sean Giery from North Carolina State University and Mark Outerbridge from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, “conservatively” estimated there were 4,000 to 5,000 of the lizards on the island — dwarfing a total skink population of 3,500.
Researchers on Nonsuch Island: from left, Mark Outerbridge of the Department
of Environment and Natural Resources, Sean Giery from the University of Connecticut,
and James Stroud of Florida International University (Photograph supplied)
The two species overlap “substantially” — both lizards prefer to stay on the ground, and eat the same ground-dwelling insects and spiders.
The scientists estimated that contact between the species might occur in less than ten years.
Brown anole numbers appear to reflect “an initial stage of invasion, and prior to exponential growth” — meaning the lizards could become a familiar sight around the island.
The brown anole, which is originally from the Caribbean, has spread around the world — partly because the lizards are popular as pets.