Blowing in the Wind

The Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos are crawling with little brown lizards. The reptiles, called anoles, live in trees. Colin Donihue is a biologist at Brown University in Rhode Island. In summer 2017, he traveled with a research partner to Turks and Caicos to study the anoles there. 

Four days after he left, Hurricane Irma struck the Caribbean. That violent ocean storm battered Turks and Caicos with 265 kilometer (165 mile) per hour winds. Two weeks later, another hurricane devastated the region. Donihue watched the news in disbelief.  

After checking on his colleagues in the Caribbean, Donihue wondered about the lizards. Had any of them survived the one-two punch of storms? If so, how? He planned another trip to investigate.

The islands of Turks and Caicos are in the Caribbean. They are crawling with little brown lizards. They’re called anoles. They live in trees. Colin Donihue is a biologist. He works at Brown University in Rhode Island. In summer 2017, he and a research partner traveled to Turks and Caicos to study the anoles there. 

Four days after Donihue left the islands, Hurricane Irma struck the Caribbean. It was a violent ocean storm. It had 265 kilometer (165 mile) per hour winds. The storm battered Turks and Caicos. Another hurricane hit the region two weeks later. Donihue watched the news in shock.

Donihue checked on his friends in the Caribbean. Then he wondered about the lizards. Had any of them survived the storms? If so, how? He planned to investigate.

Donihue set up a makeshift lab on his hotel’s front porch (see Test Setup, above right). One by one, he placed each lizard on a wooden perch. He pointed a leaf blower at it and slowly turned up the power. A camera recorded slow-motion video until each lizard flew off the perch and landed safely in a net. Donihue returned the anoles to the wild after the test.

The lizards didn’t seem bothered. “I like to think they were bored—like, ‘Ugh, a third hurricane?’” says Donihue. The videos revealed something important. The lizards used their sticky toes to cling to the fake branch until the blast of wind overpowered them.

That told Donihue that larger toe pads were in fact an adaptation. The bigger a lizard’s feet, the stronger its grip would be during a hurricane. Donihue may never have learned this if he hadn’t measured lizards before the storms. “We were in the right place at the right time,” he says.

Donihue set up a makeshift lab. It was on his hotel’s front porch (see “Test Setup,” above). He placed each lizard on a wooden perch one at a time. He pointed a leaf blower at them. Then he slowly turned up the power. A camera recorded slow-motion video. Eventually, each lizard flew off the perch. The lizards landed safely in a net. Donihue returned them to the wild after the test.

The lizards didn’t seem bothered. “I like to think they were bored,” says Donihue. “Like, ‘Ugh, a third hurricane?’” The videos showed something important. The lizards used their toe pads to cling to the fake branch as the wind blew. 

That told Donihue that larger toe pads were an adaptation. The bigger a lizard’s feet, the stronger its grip. Donihue might never have learned this if he hadn’t measured lizards before the storms. “We were in the right place at the right time,” he says.