NEWS108
34
aeardedAgamas liveahard life in the
wild. Theyaretruedesertdwellersthat
suffer a constant lack of food and water.
And they in their turn are an important
sourceof food forcarnivores.BeardedAga-
mas counter these challenges with a va-
rietyofstrategies:thustheyeatprettymuch
anything that fits into theirmouths,getby
withvery littlewater,andbreedextremely
abundantly.Thismethodof survival functi-
ons not only in thedesert,but alsounder
B
Morethan30yearsagoAustralia imposedatotalbanontheexportof reptiles
andamphibians.Asaresultsincethenpeoplehaveresortedtokeepingpopular
speciesavailableviacaptivebreeding.Thishasworkedverywell forall theaf-
fectedspecies,butnonesosuccessfullyastheBeardedAgama.
BeardedDragons
arealways in
byThorstenHoltmann
Red specimensareaparticularlypopular cultivated formof BeardedAgama.
All photos:FrankSchäfer
terrariumconditions. And this isoneof the
basic reasonswhy theBeardedAgamahas
becomeaperfect terrariumoccupant.
Naturally tame
But a second suchbasic reason is that by
natureBeardedAgamas exhibit very little
fearofhumansandhavea ratherphlegma-
ticapproachto life.Inthewildthisbehavior
helps to conserve valuable energy resour-
ces. No animal wastes energyunnecessa-
rily, but forananimal fromahabitatwithso
little foodas thatof theBeardedAgama to
do sowouldbe a senseless invitation to a
deathsentence.
In addition theBeardedAgamabites only
rarely,acharacteristic that isseenasaposi-
tive by the majority of animal owners.
Theremaybe individualvariations,butnor-
mallyaBeardedAgamagivesplentyofwar-
ningbyopening itsmouthwide, lowering
its "beard" in threat, andhissing,before it
bites.
Interestingly it has only recentlybeendis-
covered thatBeardedAgamaspossesspri-
mitive poison glands, whose purpose re-
mains totally unclear at present, however.
Nosignsofpoisoning inhumanshavebeen
described.Thusabite froma largeBearded
Agamamaywell bleed,but apart from the
treatment of the wound with antiseptic
usual for anyanimal bite,no furthermedi-
cinalmeasuresare required.
Lizards
