We live in Sydney Australia and are lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing wildlife. One of the animals in our backyard is the eastern water dragon. They swim in our pool on hot days and for the rest of the time, we just see them every now and then.
In November last year we saw a female in one of our flower pots next to the pool and later spotted the eggs she laid there. We covered the eggs with soil and then googled everything we could about what and when they would hatch. With the hatching time getting closer we paid careful attention to the eggs (4 of the 9 eggs looked pretty okay and 5 seemed to be infertile – all wrinkled up).
Once we noticed what seemed like a slice in the egg (which turns soft) we moved the eggs to a terrarium that we set up for them. All this action usually happens underground so it was pretty special to see it all happen. The eggs hatched one day after another and it was amazing to be a part of this. The plan was to set them free once they all hatched and to capture as much as we would about this amazing experience. We think they are all females as it turns out they are a temperature-dependent-sex animal. We had a very hot summer in Sydney. They are now all free in our backyard.
Getting ready for the big world out there
The dragon can wait like this for more than an hour
From the time that the hatching started this would be about 5 hours later
Almost out of the shell (which turns soft when it almost hatches)
We named the first one Khalesi
The second one hatched the following day
Big smile for the camera
Waiting for egg number three to hatch
And then there were three.
Finally all four beautiful eastern water dragons
They are just gorgeous and we loved being a small part of their journey
All four hatched and ready to be set free in our backyard
Minutes before they were set free
It was hard saying goodbye but they have a big playground in our backyard and we hope to see them again one day swimming in our pool (like their parents do)
Photo of daddy with his red chest
Mommy is a bit smaller than daddy
The eggs were laid in a flower pot next to our pool – because mom left them uncovered we knew where they were and covered them with sand to make sure they would hatch successfully
Matchbox to get an indication of size of new born
from Bored Panda http://bit.ly/2Koki6P
