Eastern Water Dragon

• GeneralIt drops into the water from the branches and can stay under for over an hour.
• locomociónIt can run at speed on its hind legs and, at need, drop straight into the water from a branch to escape a predator.
• It can stay submerged for more than half an hour by slowing its heart rate, and its first reaction to any threat is to drop from its branch into the water from several metres up.
• Its urban populations in Sydney are the subject of a landmark citizen science project: studies have shown that the dragons of different parks around the city have diverged genetically within a few decades, isolated by the streets and buildings.
• The sex of the hatchlings depends partly on incubation temperature, so urban warming is altering the sex ratio in some populations.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (reptile)

Habitat and environment

The banks of rivers, streams and lakes, and town parks, of eastern Australia

Size at birth

About 15 cm on hatching, and already entirely independent

Sexual maturity

4 years

Gestation / incubation

70 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

10 eggs

Sources consulted: https://www.iucnredlist.org/ | https://animaldiversity.org/ | https://es.wikipedia.org/

Best time: All year round in eastern Australia, by day, on rocks and branches beside rivers and streams; in Sydney it is common in city parks.

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.