Inland bearded dragon

Scientific name: Pogona vitticeps

Country: Australia

Continent: Oceania

Diet: Insects particularly ants. In the Zoo their diet includes dandelions, parsley, watercress, crickets and mealworms. Vitamin supplements are also given to ensure their good health.

Food & feeding: Omnivore

Habitats: Tropical dry forest, scrub forest

Conservation status: Not Threatened

Relatives: Gila monster, Philippine sail-fin water dragon

Description: The inland bearded dragon is named after its habit of puffing out the throat when angry or excited. This raises a patch of pointed scales, making them stand on end like a beard or ruff. They are a moderately-sized lizard, attaining a maximum size of about 55 cm, half of which is made up of their tail. Their colour ranges from grey to fiery orange-red. Young bearded dragons are blotched with dark grey markings on a lighter background, but as they grow these markings become less distinct. Their beards do not develop until they are mature.

Lifestyle: These lizards are primarily terrestrial but can climb several feet up tree trunks and fence posts. They live in areas where food may be hard to find so they are not fussy eaters and have large stomachs to allow them to eat large quantities of food when found. They are diurnal (active during the day) and seem to fall asleep within minutes of the light going off in the evening. Bearded dragons sometimes drink by standing in the rain with their back legs fully extended, so the rain drops run down their tail and body, arriving at their head, where they lick the drops off.

Family & friends: The inland bearded dragon has a mellow disposition and together with their manageable size, this makes them a popular reptilian pet. Males tend to fight territorial neighbours, but the fights rarely end in injury as usually the weaker one will back down.

Keeping in touch: Males display to each other using a series of rapid bobs of their head and upper bodies. Males approaching females will do the same. If the female is unreceptive, or a male is submissive, they will flatten themselves to the ground and sometimes wave a front leg - as if to say "not today thank you".

Growing up: After mating during the spring and summer, the females dig burrows and lay clutches of up to 30 eggs. The females are known to store sperm and may lay up to four clutches in a season, several of which may be fertilized from one mating. In captive conditions, the eggs hatch in 75 to 85 days at 26 degrees Celcius. Sexual maturity is reached at one to two years.

Conservation news: Bearded dragons are not threatened in the wild.