To the winner goes the spoils

Two Green Anoles locked in combat

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Peek.’ See more responses here.

I had a couple of photos lined up for this, but a few days ago I was outside cleaning windows. (I do it annually, whether they need it or not!) I got distracted by a kerfuffle in the cane grass behind me. I thought I saw an anole, so dashed inside and got my camera. When I got back and peeked into the tangle mass of cane grass, I could see two anoles locked in mortal combat.

I was pretty sure this was two males fighting. Usually, when there’s a territorial dispute there’s a lot of puffing and posturing that resolves the issue. This time, the two anoles were similar sized and the challenge was on.

It was hard to get a clear view, but each anole had a grip on the other’s head. Both sported dark bruising from the encounter. They wrestled to gain the upper hand, jerking up and down the cane grass as they did so.

Eventually, they fell apart. It was hard to tell who was the winner, but since one of them left the scene, I figured the other had won or defended his territory. However, since he was staggering around like he’d just gone 15 rounds with Mike Tyson, the other one might want to regroup and see about coming out for round 2!

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