The dragons\u2019 lair looks deceptively ordinary: a pair of pale green portables, tucked behind the reptile enclosure at Melbourne zoo.<\/p>\n
But the plain exterior belies its hidden treasures. Inside, dozens of Victorian grassland earless dragons, blissfully unaware of their status as Australia\u2019s most imperilled reptile<\/a>, are basking on rocks, gobbling up crickets or lapping up \u201cdew\u201d, expertly misted by their keeper Zac Harkin.<\/p>\n For 50 years these critically endangered creatures were thought extinct. But following their rediscovery in 2023, Zoos Victoria<\/a> is not taking any chances.<\/p>\n The new dragon conservation centre at Melbourne zoo has room to accommodate hundreds, housed as singles or pairs in open-air glass condos, each one furnished with living plants and artificial burrows made of PVC piping.<\/p>\n \u2018Pocket rockets\u2019: Zoo teams have been successfully breeding the endangered species since 2023. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The occupants would be small enough to pass for a plastic toy, if only they weren\u2019t so fast. Harkin is working to breed enough of these \u201cpocket rockets\u201d to support their recovery in the wild, each one sporting five white racing stripes, tiny scales and \u201cfangy little teeth\u201d.<\/p>\n Here, genetically distinct males and females are paired before winter, giving them a chance to settle in before breeding season kicks in.<\/p>\n But a couple that looks good on paper doesn\u2019t always work out in practice, Harkin says. Even a tiny lizard can be fearsome. \u201cThey stand on their tippy toes, arch their backs, mouths open,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n When a pairing is successful, females can produce up to two clutches of about four eggs \u2013 each one roughly the size of a Tic Tac. The hatchlings, which arrive about two months later, are fully formed miniatures, a touch bigger than a thumbnail and lighter than a gram.<\/p>\n Since the dragon\u2019s remarkable rediscovery, zoo teams have been closely monitoring the remaining wild population, and successfully breeding the species \u2013 an effort that can now be ramped up thanks to the new custom-built facility.<\/p>\n Dragons once occupied Melbourne suburbs like St Kilda, Moonee Ponds and Sunbury, before development led to loss of their grassland habitat. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Melbourne zoo, in Royal Park north of the city, is not far from their original habitat, the volcanic plains and grasslands that stretched between Melbourne and Geelong prior to colonisation. Dragons once occupied suburbs like St Kilda, Moonee Ponds and Sunbury, before housing development and agricultural expansion whittled their grassland habitat down to 0.5% of its prior extent<\/a>.<\/p>\n