Since the 1960's, Australia has strictly prohibited exports of any native wildlife. It is believed that the "founder stock" of captive bred bearded dragons found outside of Australia today were smuggled out of the country between 1974 and 1990 (Grenard 1999).
Pogona vitticeps is the most commonly found captive bred bearded dragon species. Breeders are focusing on breeding for particular colors such as red phase or gold phase, which are more marketable (Grenard 1999).
CITES: no special status
Inland bearded dragons have been used in scientific research (Wood 1995). They are also very popular in the pet trade. In recent years, the bearded dragon has become a favorite reptile to keep and breed because of their manageable size and pleasant temperament. With their array of social behaviors and inquisitive nature, bearded dragons quickly become endearing to their keepers (Tosney 1996).
Pogona vitticeps are opportunistic omnivores. They live in areas where food may be hard to find, so bearded dragons are not finicky eaters. Their stomachs are large to accommodate large quantities of plant matter, insects, and the occasional small rodent or lizard (Grenard 1999).
Pogona vitticeps has a wide natural distribution in eastern and central Australia. They are found from the eastern half of south Australia to the southeastern Northern Territory (Grenard 1999).
Biogeographic Regions: australian (Native )
Pogona vitticeps occupies a large range of habitats from the desert to dry forests and scrublands. It is a semiarboreal lizard that can be found basking on fallen branches, fence posts and picnic tables (Grenard 1999).
Terrestrial Biomes: desert or dune ; savanna or grassland
Inland Bearded Dragons are 13 to 24 inches long, including the tail. They are appropriately named bearded dragons because of their "beard," an expandable throat pouch with spikey scales. They have a broad, triangular head, round bodies, stout legs, and robust tails. Color for this species depends on the soil of the region they live in, ranging from dull brown to tan with red or gold highlights (Tosney 1996).
Inland Bearded dragons reach sexual maturity at 1 to 2 years of age. Mating occurs in the Australian spring and summer months of September to March. However, captive indoor dragons do not seem to be seasonal and can breed year round (Grenard 1999). Females dig a burrow and lay up to 24 eggs per clutch, and up to 9 clutches per year. Females have also been known to store sperm and are able to lay many clutches of fertile eggs from one mating (Tosney 1996). In captive conditions, the eggs will hatch in 55 to 75 days, at 28.9 degrees Celsius (Vosjoli 1993).
The central bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps), also known as the inland bearded dragon, is a species of agamid lizard found in a wide range of arid to semiarid regions of eastern and central Australia.[2]
Pogona vitticeps was first described by German zoologist Ernst Ahl in 1926, who placed it in the genus Amphibolurus.[3][4]
Adults of this species can reach a total length of up to 60 cm (24 in), with the tail accounting for more than half. Some sexual dimorphism is present: males can be distinguished from females by a wider cloacal opening, a wider base of the tail, a larger head and beard, and the possession of hemipenes.[5] Males also have more pronounced femoral pores than females (these can be seen as waxy bumps on the underside of the back legs).[6] Bearded dragons vary widely in colour, including brown, reddish-brown, red, yellow, white and orange. They are capable of undergoing moderate changes in coloration, and scales along both sides of the throat, neck, and head form a row of narrow spines that runs down each side of the body to the tail. When feeling threatened, a bearded dragon will flatten its body against the ground, puff out its spiny throat and open its jaws to make itself appear larger. The bearded dragon is so named because of the pouch-like projection (also called the guttural pouch) on the underside of the neck and chin area which typically turns darker than the rest of the body. It also boasts spiny projections. Both of these characteristics appear similar to a human's beard. Males typically have a darker "beard" than females, and during mating season and courtship it will typically darken to near-black. The bearded dragon, like most agamid lizards, has strong legs which enable it to lift its body completely off the ground while it moves. This is done to reduce the heat taken in from the ground, as well as to increase the air flow over the belly to cool itself further.
A study conducted in 2014 established the existence of endogenous circadian rhythm in pigmentation changes in P. vitticeps. If exposed to light, the dorsal skin of the lizard becomes darker, and if exposed to darkness, it becomes lighter. Under constant darkness (i.e. in the subjective night), the lizards' dorsal skin becomes the lightest.[7]
Many species of Pogona have a parietal eye (there are many names for it), a photoreceptor found on the center of the head. This photoreceptor is responsible for thermoregulation and hormone regulation.[8] A study in March 2020 on the Central Bearded Dragon found that light-dependent magnetoreception occurs when light with a wavelength under 580 nanometers enters the parietal eye.[9][10]
P. vitticeps is native to the semiarid woodland, arid woodland, and rocky desert regions of Central Australia. They are skilled climbers and often spend just as much time perching on tree limbs, fence posts, and in bushes as they do on the ground. They spend the morning and early evening sunning themselves on exposed branches or rocks, and retreat to shady areas or burrows during the hottest parts of the afternoon.
P. vitticeps are opportunistic omnivores. They live in areas where food may be hard to find, so bearded dragons are not finicky eaters. Their stomachs are large to accommodate large quantities of plant matter, insects, and the occasional small rodent or lizard.[11]
Bearded dragons do not vocalize, except to hiss softly when threatened. Instead, they communicate through colour displays, posture, and physical gestures, such as arm waving and head bobbing. Bearded dragons are not social animals, but will sometimes gather in groups, especially in popular feeding or basking areas. At these times, a distinct hierarchy will emerge: the highest-ranking animals will take the best – usually the highest or sunniest – basking spots, and all other individuals arrange themselves lower down.[12] If a low-ranking animal tries to challenge one of the dominant dragons, the dominant animal will demonstrate its superiority by bobbing its head and inflating its beard, at which point the challenger may signal submission by waving one of its arms in a slow or fast circle. If the low-ranking dragon does not submit, it will return the head bob, and a standoff or fight may ensue.
The head bob gestures are:[13]
The male will only wave to show submission to a dominant male, whereas the female will wave, followed by a slow head bob, to show she is ready to mate. Gravid females will often refuse the advances of a male by chasing him and lying on his back.
When under direct attack, the central bearded dragon opens its mouth to display its yellow membranes and extend its beard.[14] It darkens the colour of its skin and flattens its body, and will hiss and make small jumps towards the attacker. Bearded dragons are not known to attack humans.[5]
Adult male bearded dragons can bite more forcefully than adult females and this difference is associated with greater head dimensions.[15]
Bearded dragons have been shown to be able to learn from watching the behaviour of conspecifics. An experiment demonstrated that after one individual was trained to open a door to reach a food item, most other bearded dragons watching this action were able to perform it as well.[16]
The age of sexual maturity has not been measured, although it is estimated to be about one or two years.[2] Body size and growth rates are more important than age when determining sexual maturity in bearded dragons.[5] Males will become very aggressive towards each other and will assert their dominance by inflating their beards and through fast head bobbing. Breeding typically occurs in the early spring. Females will lay a clutch of 11–30 oblong-shaped eggs in a shallow nest dug in the sand. After being laid, the eggs are buried and are left unattended. The eggs will hatch approximately 60 to 80 days later, depending on the incubation temperature. In captivity, they can be incubated in a styrofoam fish box, but without a male lizard, the female's eggs will not be fertile. However, a female bearded dragon can retain sperm, and thus produce fertile eggs even after being separated from a male.
Courtship involves the male "head bobbing" to display dominance. If the female displays submissive behaviour, the male will use his mouth to grab the back of the female's head and the male will also wrap his front legs around the female's upper torso to keep her from moving. Copulation and insemination are quick. The gestation period averages about a month and a half.
A 2015 study showed that high-temperature incubation of eggs transforms genetically male individuals into functional females.[17] Normally their sex is determined genetically. Males have ZZ sex chromosomes, females ZW. However, when their eggs are incubated at temperatures above 32 °C (90 °F) some genetic males are born female. These females are fertile, sometimes producing more eggs than the ZW females.[18] As juveniles, the sex reversed ZZ females resemble ZZ males with respect to relative tail length and boldness.[19] However, as adults sex-reversed ZZ females lack the larger head and greater bite force of ZZ males and more closely resemble ZW females.[15]
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Several of the Pogona genus are bred in captivity as pets; the two most popular are this species and the Rankin's dragon (Pogona henrylawsoni).[20][21] The bulk of captive-bred bearded dragons today are thought to have originated from stock illegally exported from Australia during the 1970s.[22]
Captives worldwide are threatened by Agamid adenovirus, a virus that compromises the immune system of the dragon, and leads to death from other diseases. However, the majority of the infections are subclinical. Subclinically infected animals show no symptoms, but are active carriers of the disease and will infect other bearded dragons. Pet bearded dragons are commonly susceptible to Metabolic Bone Disease due to a lack of calcium in the diet, as well as impactions from ingesting sand or insects that are too large for their mouth.[23]
When the female is ready to lay eggs, she will generally stop eating, and spend most of her time trying to dig.
A morph with underdeveloped dorsal scales is popular as a terrarium pet under the name of "leatherback bearded dragon".[24]
The central bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps), also known as the inland bearded dragon, is a species of agamid lizard found in a wide range of arid to semiarid regions of eastern and central Australia.
