Central bearded dragon

Bearded dragons eat plants and small animals.

They eat leaves, flowers and fruit. They also catch bugs like ants and beetles with their sticky tongues.

Central bearded dragons are omnivores, which means they eat both plants and animals. In the wild they eat leaves, flowers and fruit, and catch insects such as ants and beetles, and sometimes small lizards or mice.

Food can be hard to find in the dry outback, so bearded dragons are not fussy eaters. When a dragon spots food, its mouth opens fast and its sticky tongue shoots out to pull the food in.

The species is an opportunistic omnivore. The Australian Museum lists fruit and leaves, invertebrates such as ants and beetles, and small vertebrates such as lizards; Cosley Zoo adds flowers and rodents. Animal Diversity Web notes a large stomach that can hold large quantities of plant matter.

Prey and plant food are taken with a rapid strike of the sticky tongue, then held and broken up by the teeth and strong jaw muscles. The Australian Museum also describes an unusual way of drinking, seen in an outdoor enclosure and possibly used in the wild: in light rain, a dragon stood with its head and tail sloping down and licked the water running forward over its body to its snout, holding the pose for 20 to 30 minutes.

Bearded dragons talk with their bodies.

They bob their heads up and down. They also wave one arm slowly, as if they are saying hello!

Bearded dragons talk with their bodies instead of their voices. A strong male bobs his head quickly, often with a black, puffed-up beard, to show he is in charge. A smaller or shyer dragon answers by standing on three legs and slowly waving one front leg in a circle, which means "I give up."

They usually live alone, but they gather where there are great basking spots or lots of food. In cooler seasons they slow right down, stop eating and rest, which is called brumation.

Communication relies on posture, color, head bobbing and arm waving (Australian Museum). Fast head bobs with an inflated, blackened beard signal male dominance; slow bows can signal a female's submission; vigorous whole-body bobbing precedes mating. Arm waving, a slow circular wave of one forelimb while standing on three legs, signals submission and, Animal Diversity Web suggests, species recognition.

Usually solitary, bearded dragons form clear hierarchies when they gather at prime basking sites or abundant food. They are diurnal, though the Australian Museum notes they are sometimes seen on roads after dark following hot days, and in cool seasons they enter brumation, a hibernation-like state in which they stop eating (Cosley Zoo).

There are lots of wild bearded dragons in Australia.

Foxes and cats brought by people catch some of them. Many people around the world keep bearded dragons as pets.

Wild central bearded dragons are common, so they are listed as least concern. Their natural enemies include goannas, black-headed pythons, dingoes and birds of prey, and foxes and cats brought to Australia by people catch them too.

In Australia they are protected, and nobody may take them from the wild. Australia has not allowed its wild animals to be sold to other countries since the 1960s, and most pet bearded dragons around the world are bred in captivity.

The IUCN lists the species as Least Concern (assessed 2017, published 2018) because it is very widespread and locally common, with an unknown population trend; it is preyed on by introduced foxes and feral cats, but no major threats are known, and its range overlaps many protected areas.

The IUCN notes that it and Pogona henrylawsoni are the most common agamids in the global pet trade, and that it is widely captive-bred. Australia has banned the export of native wildlife since the 1960s, and Animal Diversity Web reports the belief that the founder stock of captive dragons outside Australia was smuggled out between 1974 and 1990. In Australia it is protected: it cannot be collected from the wild, and most states require a permit to keep one (Australian Museum).