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BonnyMolly

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Just curious. I have a number of eastern water dragons living in a small creek that runs through my backyard. Generally they just hang out in the sun and will run away if disturbed. However there is one that only shows up occasionally and seems to remember me. Is this even possible? When he sees me he comes running and I handfeed him a few rolled oats. He's been doing this for about 18 months. Currently he is laying on my window sill. Is this normal?
 

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Hi BonnyMolly
They are usualy very shy in my experiance, if i were you i would consider myself very lucky, thanks for the pic and enjoy your beautiful friend.
I guess I am very lucky. The picture is about 12mnths old. His tail was eaten by a neighbours dog but has now grown back......black. He won't eat rolled oats on the ground. He waits for them to be handfed to him one at a time. Then waits for the next one. I couldn't understand wild reptile behaving like this.
 
Me either to be honest, but its great to see. I used to photograph them along the molonglo in canberra years ago and found that the males were usualy mint green with brite yellow or blue markings under their necks . They were always highly alert and wound never let me get to close. Not sure but i think they may have actualy been Gippsland Water Dragons. Happy new year and have fun !
 
@onnyMolly
I think you might find the following article an interesting read. These water dragons are 'evolving at a pace we can witness' - ABC News. It points out the ability of water dragons to recognise different individuals of their own species. This is not a new thing. Some 50 years ago I got to see how John Cann’s turtles recognised him and would come out from under the duckweed covered pond. Yet if I stuck my head where it was visible, they would not come out until I had moved away. In the intervening period from then to now, almost no research has been done on the ability to learn in reptiles. It has primarily focussed on mammal and birds and the octopus. We still have a lot to discover here.

Every once in a while, a wild animal will develop trust in a human. Sometimes the reasons are obvious and other times obscure. Whatever, it is pretty special when it does happen. What you have going is awesome. You must have done something right by the little critter. Enjoy!

Thanks for sharing your story with us.

@CF Constrictor
They are Gippsland WDs down there. The easiest way to distinguish between the two subspecies is that Gippsland lack the dark band from ear drum to eye that is present in EWDs. In Qld EWDs there tends to be a yellow streak in the middle of that dark band, near the eye.
 
We live behind a golf course with a creek/canal running between us and the course Just shy of the QLD / NSW border. There a dozens of WD's around our area and they are incredibly curious little thing. We have had the odd one or two come into our house, find it sitting on our tiles in the kitchen or under our couch. They skamper pretty quickly when we spot them even though we don't try to go near them or catch them - they are stunning animals!

Outside they will come right to our back door or lounge on our back lawn. I was feeding them for a little while when we moved in, just some bits of fruit or scrap meat, or oats and I'm sure they recognise me as my partner and my kids wouldn't feed them and they would run from them if they got to close. I couldn't get close enough to hand feed them but they were in arms reach most of the time.

I work FIFO and I have 2 dogs who started chasing them while I was gone for work. Now the dragons won't come into the yard and will sit outside our rear fence (taunting the dogs) I still throw them some bits and pieces when I'm home but even with the dogs locked inside they won't come back in.
 
We live behind a golf course with a creek/canal running between us and the course Just shy of the QLD / NSW border. There a dozens of WD's around our area and they are incredibly curious little thing. We have had the odd one or two come into our house, find it sitting on our tiles in the kitchen or under our couch. They skamper pretty quickly when we spot them even though we don't try to go near them or catch them - they are stunning animals!

Outside they will come right to our back door or lounge on our back lawn. I was feeding them for a little while when we moved in, just some bits of fruit or scrap meat, or oats and I'm sure they recognise me as my partner and my kids wouldn't feed them and they would run from them if they got to close. I couldn't get close enough to hand feed them but they were in arms reach most of the time.

I work FIFO and I have 2 dogs who started chasing them while I was gone for work. Now the dragons won't come into the yard and will sit outside our rear fence (taunting the dogs) I still throw them some bits and pieces when I'm home but even with the dogs locked inside they won't come back in.
It's interesting that they seem to distinguish between you and the others in the household isn't it. Thank you for replying.
 

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