Types of Lizards in Key West, Florida: 8 Species You’ll Actually See
October 27, 2026
Sit on any porch in Key West for five minutes and a lizard will almost certainly scurry past. What surprises most visitors is that nearly all of the types of lizards in Key West, Florida are transplants rather than true locals — arrivals from Cuba, the Bahamas, Madagascar, and Central America that hitchhiked in on cargo ships, nursery plants, and the exotic pet trade.
Only a small number of species on this list actually evolved in the Florida Keys. The rest moved in over the last century and, in some cases, decades, reshaping the island’s reptile scene along the way. Below are the eight lizards you’re most likely to encounter around Key West, from six-foot iguanas sunning on seawalls to a two-inch native gecko most people never notice.
1. Green Iguana
The green iguana (Iguana iguana) is the lizard every Key West visitor eventually asks about. In the Florida Keys, the herbivorous iguanas with a taste for bird eggs and no natural predators are as common as cockroaches. In town, they’ve adapted their diet to match the local buffet — in Key West, they have been seen feeding on scraps of food discarded from restaurant tables, sometimes lettuce, on occasion French fries, like common chickens.
Size surprises a lot of newcomers, too. Green iguanas can grow up to 4-6 feet in length, and one Keys Weekly report notes that green iguanas are scientifically known by one of the all-time original Latin names, Iguana iguana. Despite their prehistoric look, most Key West residents consider them a nuisance rather than a novelty, since they strip ornamental plants and dig burrows that undermine seawalls and foundations.
Pro Tip: Juvenile green iguanas are bright green and easy to confuse with native anoles at a glance, but their size quickly gives them away — even hatchlings are noticeably longer and bulkier than any anole species in the Keys.
Green iguanas aren’t the only large lizard family with a foothold in Florida. Related spiny-tailed iguanas from Central America have also turned up in South Florida, a pattern explored in more detail in this guide to lizard species found throughout Mexico. Because iguanas remain popular in the exotic pet trade, escaped or released pets are a major source of Florida’s wild population — a dynamic covered further in this overview of commonly kept pet reptiles.
2. Curly-tailed Lizard (Northern Curly-Tailed Lizard)
The northern curly-tailed lizard (Leiocephalus carinatus) gets its name from the way it curls its tail into a tight spiral when alert or excited. Native to the Bahamas, curly-tailed lizards are named for their distinctive curly tail, and they’ve become a familiar sight on rock walls and seawalls throughout the Keys since their introduction.
These lizards are built for speed and grip. They are speedy little creatures that are very hard to catch — or even get close to, and field surveys of the Lower Keys describe them as common in some areas, where they really seem to like the tops of rock piles. Curly-tails are aggressive predators of smaller lizards, including anoles, which has made them a controversial addition to the local ecosystem.
The curly-tailed lizard’s dominance may not last forever. According to a Keys Weekly account of exotic species in the Keys, an African species called a red-headed agama, a bigger, stronger and faster lizard, is making inroads on the island chain, and it will be interesting to see if curly-tailed lizard populations are eventually affected. Similar leapfrogging between introduced reptile species has played out in other warm-climate states, including the shifting lizard communities described in this guide to lizard species in Hawaii.
3. Brown Anole
The brown anole (Anolis sagrei) is, by sheer numbers, the lizard you’ll see most often in Key West. Originally from Cuba and the Bahamas, you can now find these lizards throughout the state of Florida, including the Florida Keys. They favor low vegetation, garden beds, and tree trunks, where they scurry about the paths, in gardens, and up the trunks of palm trees.
One longtime Plantation Key resident writing for Keys Weekly described just how quickly brown anole populations can shift over time, noting that in addition to Iguana iguana, there are brown anoles, though when they moved onto the property eight or nine years earlier, many more brown anoles had lived there. Males display a reddish-orange dewlap during territorial disputes, and despite their tiny size, brown anoles are surprisingly bold, often approaching porches and pool decks in search of insects.
Brown anoles have proven remarkably adaptable outside Florida as well. Texas has documented a similar invasion pattern, detailed in this breakdown of lizard species found in Texas.
4. Green Anole
The green anole (Anolis carolinensis) is one of the few widely seen lizards in Key West that’s actually native to Florida. According to University of Florida extension researchers, the green anole is the most common of the native lizards, and these 5-8 inch long reptiles live their lives in trees and shrubs, changing color from green to brown based on heat and sun. Despite the nickname “American chameleon,” they are not chameleons and are actually more closely related to iguanas.
Competition from introduced species has pushed green anoles higher into the tree canopy than they once occupied. One Keys Weekly writer observed that native Carolina anoles rarely come down from the safety of their trees anymore, likely due to pressure from curly-tailed lizards and brown anoles at ground level. Males still put on a show when they can, extending a bright pink throat dewlap as a territorial or courtship display.
The green anole’s range extends well beyond Florida, reaching into states covered in this guide to lizard species in Tennessee.
5. Gecko (Various Species, Including Madagascar Day Gecko)
Key West hosts a surprising variety of gecko species, and almost none of them started out in Florida. The Madagascar day gecko (Phelsuma madagascariensis) is one of the flashiest — with its luminous green skin and expansive pupils, it is truly a sight to behold, and while most native to Madagascar, it can be found in South Florida and the Keys. This type of gecko is relatively new to Florida, arriving in the 1990s to the surprise of many ecologists.
House geckos have an even longer history on the island. Mediterranean house geckos were first introduced to the Florida Keys in 1915 and were quickly able to establish themselves as an invasive species. Field surveys of the Lower Keys have also turned up ashy geckos, tropical house geckos, and ocellated geckos clinging to walls and tree bark after dark, since countless numbers of bark anoles and juvenile ashy geckos turn up on nighttime searches.
Key Insight: Of the many gecko species you’ll spot around Key West, only one — the Florida reef gecko, covered next — actually originated in the state.
For a full breakdown of every gecko species established in the state, see this dedicated guide to geckos found throughout Florida. As A-Z Animals notes in its review of the state’s gecko population, out of Florida’s resident geckos, only a single one, the Florida reef gecko, is actually native to the state.
6. Florida Reef Gecko
The Florida reef gecko (Sphaerodactylus notatus) is easy to overlook, and that’s exactly the point. This tiny gecko is Florida’s only native gecko species, and it’s also endemic to a handful of Caribbean islands. It favors shaded, moist ground cover, since like most gecko species, the reef gecko prefers damp, humid, densely forested habitats, particularly those in coastal areas.
Its size and fragility explain why so few people ever spot one. This lizard can grow up to 2 inches long but is so small and fragile that its skin can break with just the slightest touch, though it is extremely fast, allowing it to avoid threats with ease, and it is mostly brown with a few dark spots that eventually fade over time. According to Bird Watching HQ’s gecko guide, Florida reef geckos are also sometimes called Brown-speckled Sphaeros.
Herpetologists surveying the Lower Keys confirmed just how rare a genuine sighting is, reporting that among the many introduced species encountered, only three native species of lizard were seen on the whole trip: one green anole, a handful of six-lined racerunners, and a few Florida reef geckos. Because reef geckos hunt small insects and arthropods in leaf litter, their presence says a lot about a yard’s overall health — a theme also explored in this guide to spider species found in Florida that share the same hunting grounds.
7. Mole Skink
The Florida Keys mole skink (Plestiodon egregius) is one of the few lizards on this list with real conservation concerns attached to its name. The Florida Keys mole skink is protected as a state-Threatened species by Florida’s Endangered and Threatened Species Rule. Physically, it’s a small brown lizard that can reach a length of five inches, with a brownish-colored body, a pink-tinted tail, and two or more light-colored lines that extend from the head down the body.
Its legs are small, with five toes on each foot, and its diet leans heavily on backyard pests — roaches, spiders, and crickets make up the bulk of what it eats. Breeding happens underground and mostly unseen, since females lay a clutch of three to five eggs in underground nests between April and June.
Important Note: Because the Florida Keys mole skink is a state-listed threatened species, avoid disturbing leaf litter, coverboards, or debris piles where one might be sheltering, and never attempt to collect one as a pet.
A statewide survey documented by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission found mole skinks scattered across the Lower Keys, with 10 records of mole skinks from checking 192 coverboards between Bahia Honda and Key West, and targeted raking surveys turning up 19 individuals. Skinks as a family show up across a wide range of climates, including the species profiled in this guide to reptiles found in India.
8. Six-lined Racerunner
The six-lined racerunner (Aspidoscelis sexlineatus) is the sprinter of the group. Native to the United States and Mexico, it’s found throughout much of the southeastern and south-central United States, from Maryland to Florida in the east. Its coloring is unmistakable: typically dark green, brown, or black, with six yellow or green-yellow stripes running from head to tail, and a distinct lemon-yellow coloration on the sides of the head.
Speed is this lizard’s defining trait. The six-lined racerunner has a top speed of 18 miles per hour, capable of running that fast when threatened, and much of its 6-to-9-inch body length is composed of its long, slender tail. That burst of speed comes in handy against predators, and it also makes racerunners efficient hunters — their primary food source is termites, though they also eat beetles, ants, and spiders.
| Lizard | Status in Key West | Typical Size | Where You’ll Spot It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green Iguana | Invasive | 4–6 feet | Seawalls, gardens, restaurant patios |
| Curly-tailed Lizard | Invasive | 7–11 inches | Rock piles, seawalls, sidewalks |
| Brown Anole | Invasive | 5–8 inches | Gardens, palm trunks, low shrubs |
| Green Anole | Native | 5–8 inches | Tree canopy, shrubs |
| Gecko species | Mostly invasive | 3–6 inches | Building walls, porches, at night |
| Florida Reef Gecko | Native | Up to 2 inches | Leaf litter, coastal ground cover |
| Mole Skink | Native, threatened | Up to 5 inches | Leaf debris, coverboards, wrack lines |
| Six-lined Racerunner | Native | 6–9 inches | Open sunny ground, sandy areas |
Racerunners share territory with several native lizard species covered elsewhere in this series, including the desert-adapted populations detailed in this guide to lizard species in Arizona. For a deeper look at the species itself, the Wikipedia entry on the six-lined racerunner covers its full range and classification in detail.
Key West’s lizard population tells a bigger story about how quickly an island ecosystem can change. Of the eight species covered here, only the green anole, Florida reef gecko, mole skink, and six-lined racerunner trace their roots to Florida itself — everything else arrived within the last century, mostly through the pet trade, shipping routes, and agricultural nurseries. For readers curious how these patterns compare across the rest of the state, this broader guide to lizard species throughout Florida offers useful context on which species dominate outside the Keys.
Whether you’re watching a curly-tailed lizard patrol a seawall or catching a rare glimpse of a reef gecko under a porch light, Key West offers one of the densest concentrations of lizard diversity in the continental United States. Keep an eye on the ground as well as the trees, and you’ll likely spot more than one species before your visit is over.