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Project Noah Nature School
Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii (formerly Physignathus lesueurii lesueurii)
The Eastern Water Dragon is a large lizard native to Australia. Information on this species can be found at one of my previous spottings in Brisbane - http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/222... This particular specimen was found in Sydney. It is by comparison very dark in colour to my previous spotting, and I think considerably larger. From nose to tail I would estimate its length to be approximately 1 meter. I'm fairly certain it's a male. I approached him slowly and quietly, and he seemed quite relaxed with this style of approach. After a while he seemed quite inquisitive about me and made no attempt to flee. There was a smaller adult as well, possibly a female, which jumped straight into the creek, and a very small young one which took to the undergrowth.
A freshwater creek just flushed out by recent rains. This one is in leafy suburban Sydney.
I grew up in this neighbourhood and can honestly say I have never seen a water dragon in the area. There are many creeks and there's plenty of dense bushland, and I can only assume that my mind was on other things during my younger adult years.
Spotted on Feb 18, 2014
Submitted on Feb 21, 2014
2 Comments
They are indeed, and are really solid animals. They always seem so enormous when up close, and those big claws....
Nice one! Impressive aren't they.