Where are all the green anoles?

Nature Talk
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I live in the Houston Metro Area, and we have a big issue with invasive cuban brown anoles which are threatening native green anole populations. I’ve heard that they have become more arboreal, but I haven’t seen them. Are they still there or is this a localized extinction. EDIT: for clarification I want to know if green anole populations are still present along most of the Texas gulf coast area not just Houston

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Not familiar with Texas, but a similar thing has happened in Hawaii. Green anoles were the only ones I saw as a kid. Now I basically never see them, just brown anoles. My understanding (and @cthawley would know better) is that with the introduction of brown anoles, green anoles are more likely to retreat to higher-up places in plants and thus also more difficult to see. Brown anoles are much more likely to be out in the open, in my experience.

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@petezani Any thoughts?

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Over 1500 observations in Houston Metro in 2025, they’re still there, just hiding from the bully Brown anoles up higher in the trees.

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“Predators . . . drive evolutionary diversification . . . within populations . . . that can lead to the formation of new species” (Under “1. Introduction”)

Predators as Agents of Selection and Diversification
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/12/11/415

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Yep, still there, just higher up and much harder for humans to detect. Green anoles evolved on Cuba with brown anoles and are perfectly capable of coexisting with them. They’ve been apart for several million years most likely (green anoles eloped to the mainland, but brown anoles failed to pursue). Now they are coming back into contact, and green anoles are just returning to their ancestral niche as a trunk-crown anole. Browns have been present in southern Florida for >100 years in some places, and still plenty of greens. On Cuba, where there are tons of brown (and many other species of) anoles, there are still plenty of greens (though greens are A. porcatus there, which should likely be synonymized at least in part with A. carolinensis).

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I live in Austin and there are plenty of Green Anoles, but I haven’t really seen that many brown anoles.

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They’re more common on the coast since they came in through the port. It also may have to do with the higher humidity