DigiVol:Leaping Leo and The Fat One have a new home

  • Author(s)
    Leonie Prater
  • Category
    Museullaneous
  • Published
    12 August 2014
  • Read time
    2 minutes

The DigiVol blog series features stories about our Volunteer Digitisation program that includes the DigiVol Lab and DigiVol Online(BVP).

Leaping Leo (female) and the Fat One (male) are two 8 year old Central Bearded Dragons, Pogona vitticeps, who have been interesting children’s pets in Barbara’s home. For the last 8 years, they have lived in an aquarium with a special UV light and heat lamp controlled by a timer, with a shallow dish of water and a hand spray to provide humidity as the dragons don’t actually drink. 

Barbara said that ‘They are easy to look after if you don’t mind handling crickets and wood lice which are regulars on the menus. They each have their favourite foods, including grated carrots, chopped up green beans, strawberries and bananas.They managed to escape a couple of times, including making it as far as the balcony but were thankfully noticed in time. They were always fascinated watching people in their room, especially when I did the ironing. It is nice to think that they will be going somewhere for a very long time due to their longevity where they will be looked after properly and appreciated by many others. I hope visitors will get to see them practising their over-arm bowling and head-banging!’

Chris Hosking, with Live Exhibits at the Australian Museum was very keen for the Museum to accept the gift of both bearded dragons as they are both very healthy and will be a wonderful attraction for Museum visitors. Chris said that ‘They are both in quarantine for 30 days and are settling in well to their new surroundings with a weekly visit from Barbara during this period.’

Chris will be telling us more about the bearded dragons at the end of the quarantine period, including any escape attempts! The new lizards will be exhibited in the Museum’s hands-on enquiry centre; Search & Discover as well as used for encounters with visitors.

More information about this species can be found here; http://australianmuseum.net.au/Central-Bearded-Dragon
More information about the Australian Museum’s Live Exhibits can be found here; http://australianmuseum.net.au/Live-Exhibits/