Rapid body color brightening is associated with exposure to a stressor in an Anolis lizard

Many species use color change to optimize body coloration to changing environmental conditions, and drivers of rapid color change in natural populations are numerous and poorly understood. We examined factors influencing body coloration in the Water Anole (Anolis aquaticus Taylor, 1956), a lizard possessing color-changing stripes along the length of its body. We quantified the color of three body regions (the eye stripe, lateral stripe, and dorsum) before and after exposure to a mild stressor (handling and restraint). Based on current understanding of the genus Anolis Daudin, 1802, we hypothesized that exposure to a stressor would generate genus-typical skin darkening (i.e., increased melanism). Contrary to expectations, stress consistently brightened body coloration: eye and lateral stripes transitioned from brown to pale blue and green and the dorsum became lighter brown. Sex, size, and body temperature did not correlate with any aspect of body coloration, and a laboratory experiment confirmed that light exposure did not drive brightening. We propose that color change may serve to reduce conspicuousness through disruptive camouflage; lizards tended to display brighter stripes on mottled green–brown substrates. Together, these results improve our understanding of Anolis color change diversity and emphasize the need for a broader interpretation of the mechanism and functions of color change across taxa.