Disappearing Anole

Question
Hi. I'm not sure if this is within your area of expertise, so you can just ignore it if its not.
Anyway, here it is:
I have had a male green anole for 4 years, and he is quite large now. However, I recently bought two smaller female anoles, presumably quite young. They seemed to be doing fine. However, just today, I was observing the anoles when I realized that I could only see two (the male and one of the females). This wasn't such a surprise, as they often hide in their plant anyway. I wanted to see where the third was, though, so I checked their plant from all angles. However, I still didn't see her. This was strange, since I can usually spot them if I looked long enough. I took the plant out to take a closer look. I looked through every leaf and even shook it out. The other two anoles were frantically jumping around the tank, but still no sign of the missing one. I then proceeded to take everything out of the tank, but she was nowhere to be seen!
What could have happened to her? I am always very careful when feeding them and I am fairly certain that she did not escape. There wasn't any sign of a dead anole anywhere in the tank. It seems very strange that she just disppeared.
Do you know what might have happened?
Thanks,
Max

Answer
Hello Max, how I have never had this happen it is fairly common. Anoles are escape artists and are very fast and quiet and the same time. How big was she compared to the male? It is possible he could have harmed her. Males can be very territorial even with females. So keep a close close eye on the other one and it might even be best to separate them in the mean time. I don't really have any other answers besides that. Maybe russel around the substrate and watch very closely especially during feeding. After being alone for 4 years I am sure the male doesn't really enjoy the company. I think its best to seprate the new one too. Also at such a young age how can you be sure it is a female? If you are going by the white striped spine theory it is not very accurate. Almost all green anoles have this stripe when they are young. Females just seem to keep it longer. Although males have been recorded having it their entire lives so be sure to check really good.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Good luck on finding out what happened.