The Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon (Tympanocryptis lineata) is a small lizard that is usually less than 150 mm long and weighs 5–9 g. Each one has distinctive markings on its back that can be used to identify individuals.
Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons live in grasslands that usually have had little or no ploughing or pasture improvement. They like well-drained sites dominated by Tall Speargrass (Austrostipa rudis) and shorter wallaby grass (Rytidosperma spp.), with patches of tussocks and open spaces between them.
Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons use arthropod burrows, particularly those of wolf spiders and the rare Canberra Raspy Cricket (Cooraboorama canberrae), for shelter and nests. They eat a variety of small invertebrates, particularly ants, beetles, spiders and moths (including moth larvae).
During the breeding season, subadults and adults often have yellow-orange or reddish coloration on their throat, sides of head and flanks. In the wild, Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons are short lived, with females usually producing only one clutch of eggs, or two if conditions are good, one in spring and the second in summer. The females lay between three and seven eggs in a clutch (but typically four eggs). They can live several years in captivity.
Protecting our local dragons
The Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon is Critically Endangered under ACT and national legislation. Having been formally recognised as a distinct species of grassland earless dragon in 2019, they are endemic to the ACT region.
Their Natural Temperate Grassland habitat is only a tiny fraction of its pre-European settlement extent. Remaining populations are threatened by further habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, predation, and climate change. Threats include:
- altered grazing regimes
- altered fire regimes
- weed invasion
- non-native predators
- habitat destruction
- loss of genetic diversity
- habitat and population fragmentation .
The Grassland Earless Dragon action plan [PDF ] sets out priorities and actions to protect, restore and monitor remaining habitat and populations in the ACT. Annual population and habitat monitoring occurs across all tenure types in the ACT including nature reserve, rural lease, unleased and Commonwealth land. There are also programs that aim to evaluate the effectiveness of management actions such as herbage mass management, ecological burns and weed control.
Critical to the long-term survival of this severely threatened species, a breeding facility for the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon opened at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve in 2021. This colony provides ‘insurance’ against extinction and a source of genetically diverse animals for conservation translocations, including reintroductions into the wild, and animals for research aimed at recovering this species. Larger outdoor predator-proof ring tanks have been built to facilitate research.
In its first ten months, the Tidbinbilla breeding facility bred 30 Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons. Rory, pictured here, was the first to be born as part of the captive breeding program and named after an Ectotherm Keeper at Melbourne Zoo. At 4 months old, Rory was already full-sized and ready to breed in Spring.
The facility is a critical and flagship breeding program being undertaken at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve by the ACT Government. Project partners include the Melbourne Zoo and University of Canberra.
From 2020, the ACT Government provided $2.1 million over three years for the initial stage of the project, which includes work to restore and re-connect habitat to help the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon and other grassland species survive in the landscape.
The breeding facility
The purpose-built facility, along with a specially designed quarantine facility, can house up to 80 Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons.
The biosecure facility protects the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons from disease and provides optimal conditions for their wellbeing. Each Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon is housed with everything it needs, such as a burrow, grasses to climb on and a basking platform.
Melbourne Zoo and the University of Canberra have pioneered captive breeding of Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons over many years and have passed their specialist knowledge on to the Threatened Species Officers at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve who are responsible for managing the colony.
Melbourne Zoo provided Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons to Tidbinbilla to start their colony. Others will be sourced from the wild so genetic diversity of this species is captured and retained. Genetic diversity is essential for long-term survival and is the basis of the breeding strategy.
Matchmaking
Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons are not the easiest of animals to breed. They are very territorial, and females can be fussy. Matchmaking requires identifying several genetically desirable males and introducing them to the female until she finds ‘the one’.
Matches are decided, not in heaven, but in the laboratory. The University of Canberra will genotype the animals (that is, understand the variation in genes of each individual) and run computer simulations to find which individuals should be paired to create the best pedigree and a genetically robust captive population. This tool allows us to assess gene flow within a population and be able to assess the genetic contribution that animals will make to subsequent generations.
Genetic analysis and matchmaking programs are essential as our wild populations are increasingly separated from each other by roads, development, and environmental factors. This separation means that populations cannot breed and don't benefit from a varied gene pool. This project will bring the genetic variation found across different wild populations into the captive population to make it as genetically diverse as possible prior to releasing captive bred dragons into the wild.
This genetic variation should result in greater potential for disease resistance, drought tolerance and other factors that help the dragon survive under different environmental pressures.
Habitat restoration
To give the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon and other grassland species the best possible opportunity to survive and thrive, we are restoring and reconnecting areas of Natural Temperate Grassland habitat in the ACT. We are also assessing potential impacts of climate shifts on the viability of future habitats and release sites [PDF ].
Research and monitoring
Robust science underpins and guides adaptive management for conservation in the ACT. Research and monitoring are integral to the success of our threatened species programs by informing future management strategies and effective threat mitigation.
The ACT Government Grassland Earless Dragon and grassland ecosystems research program includes:
- investigating the impact of threats faced by dragons such as climate change, predation, and habitat degradation and fragmentation
- effectiveness of adaptive management and mitigation actions
- species-specific research such as the role of invertebrates in creating habitat (burrows) for Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons to shelter in, mating and territoriality behaviours, and enhanced detection techniques.
To find out more about ecological research and monitoring, check the Grassland Earless Dragon monitoring dashboard.
University researchers and post-graduate students will also study the dragon’s population dynamics and continue current research on improving detection of the lizards in the wild.
Back to the wild
Wild releases of Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons and the establishment of sustainable, viable populations are central to the ACT Government’s strategy to recover and protect this species.
Our partners
The ACT Government would like to thank its partners in this project.
The University of Canberra has been researching Grassland Earless Dragons and working with ACT Government for over 15 years.
The University of Canberra plays a lead role in behavioural, genetic and ecological research of the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon. The university will take the lead on genomic sequencing to assist with captive breeding matchmaking and they will also conduct research on improving detection of the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon in the wild.
Melbourne Zoo has a captive colony of Grassland Earless Dragons. The captive populations there and at Tidbinbilla are managed as a ‘meta-colony’. The Zoo has produced Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons to establish Tidbinbilla’s colony and is sharing its expertise in husbandry and breeding techniques, developed over several years, with threatened species officers at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.
The ACT Government collaborates with the Australian Government Department of Defence to monitor and conduct research on the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon at the Majura Training Area.