Lizard found in salad ends up as kindergarten classroom favourite

The three-inch (7.5-cm) critter went unnoticed for a few days in the refrigerator in Princeton, New Jersey, before Sally Mabon and her daughter Faye found its limp body while unwrapping a bunch of tatsoi, an Asian leaf, science teacher Mark Eastburn of Riverside Elementary School in Princeton said. Exposure to warmth restored its energy and soon the anole lizard was on its way to Riverside Elementary School, where it caught “oohs” and “aahs” like flies, and quickly became the class pet. The juvenile lizard has been named “Green Fruit Loop” by the children. 

The lizard lurking in the salad greens has turned out to be a valuable learning experience, Eastburn said. “It underscores that food doesn’t just come from the supermarket but from actual outdoor farms. It’s great because the kids are studying DNA and the anole is the only reptile to have its entire DNA code sequenced,” Eastburn said. Also known as an American chameleon, the anole changes color from green to brown to blend into its surroundings, which now include a glass enclosure near the blackboard in Eastburn’s classroom. 

Fran McManus, spokeswoman for Whole Earth Center, the natural foods store where Mabon bought the tatsoi, said hat a Florida grower believes the lizard snuggled into the greens as they were being harvested in chilly temperatures and then woke up as a stowaway in New Jersey. 

So far, the lizard has feasted on a live cricket and some fruit flies and has no appetite for tatsoi, Eastburn said.