This bright little lizard was once widespread along Adelaide’s coastline. But now, painted dragons are endangered in our region. Find out about the work we’re doing to rebuild the population.
Did you know that certain areas along Adelaide’s coastline are home to painted dragons? And by painted dragon, we mean a type of tiny lizard that measures just 20 cm long when fully grown and is often striped or dotted with bright colours.
Painted dragons (or Ctenophorus pictus if we’re being formal) were once widespread along Adelaide’s coastline, but now there’s only a handful of isolated populations in the sand dunes north of Tennyson beach.
Like any native species, it’s important we do what we can do conserve and grow the population. That’s where our rewilding program comes into play.
Find out more about the program and where we’re at with it, but first, learn more about this special little lizard.
How to recognise a painted dragon
Painted dragons are a colourful creature, so when they’re out basking in the sun, they’re very easy to spot!
They have a spotted or striped body with relatively uniform scales that can range in colour, anywhere from a drab grey or brown, to shades of yellow, orange and red.
Breeding males can be particularly striking, with bright red, yellow and blue markings – perfect to draw attention.
Their bright colours and distinctive movements, including head bobs, arm waves and tail flicking, are used to fend off other males and attract a mate.
Juveniles are small, no longer than your finger, but they will grow to be about 20 cm long as adults – much of this length is their tail!
What do painted dragons eat – and what feeds on them?
Painted dragons are ‘sit and wait’ hunters, so they will perch themselves somewhere to watch for ants and other insects and dash out to get them.
They also eat berries and flowers.
Painted dragons’ predators include birds of prey, such as kestrels, and in an urban setting, domestic cats are a threat too.
Where do painted dragons live?
Painted dragons are native to southern Australia.
Along the coast, they usually live in the protected side (not the beachfront side!) of sand dunes that are moderately covered with shrubs but also have open space. They prefer a scattering of fallen timber for perching and basking.
In Adelaide, painted dragons were once found along the entire metropolitan coastline.
But historic coastal erosion and subsequent habitat loss has meant they’re only found in a few locations on Adelaide’s northern coast.
In fact, it’s been more than 60 years since they’ve been recorded south of Tennyson Dunes.
Despite extensive revegetation and restoration works that have improved many of our coastal habitats in recent decades, there are still developments and gaps in painted dragons’ preferred habitat along the coastline.
This means any populations on our northern coastline can’t make it back to the restored central and southern beaches naturally.
This is why our rewilding program is so important, and where ‘translocations’ come into play.
How does our painted dragon rewilding program work?
To help Adelaide’s painted dragon population grow and thrive, we’ve now delivered 2 rewilding exercises – a process whereby animals are moved from one site to another, with the aim that they will thrive and help a population establish at the new site.
The first was late 2024 when 33 juvenile dragons were carefully collected from Outer Harbor and rewilded to restored habitat at Minda Dunes, at North Brighton.
The second, early in 2025, involved translocating 35 juveniles from Biodiversity Park and adjacent land at Outer Harbor and rehomed at Henley Beach South. Six adults were also rescued from a construction development at Osborne and rewilded to North Haven, along with other rescued small lizards.
Rewilding can be quite a process though. Before animals are translocated, suitable donor and rewilding sites have to be determined.
Over the last few years, we’ve worked with herpetologists (aka a scientist that specialises in amphibians and reptiles) from Yakka Environmental to survey the Adelaide coast for dragon populations and map suitable dragon habitat.
The Minda Dunes location, where our first rewilded dragons were taken to, is one of the few large remnant dunes along the metro coast and is on land owned by Minda Inc.
It had undergone significant restoration works over recent years. This involved controlling weeds like sea wheat-grass, bucksthorn plantain, evening primrose, coastal Galenia and African boxthorn, which had threatened to take up bare ground in suitable habitat areas.
These conservation works were undertaken by our dedicated coastal team, along with contractors, our partners at the City of Holdfast Bay and the Friends of Minda Dunes.
At Henley Beach South in the City of Charles Sturt, the wide dunes have good native plant diversity and plantings of rarer coastal plants.
With the good combination of wide dune swales and a mix of native habitat and bare ground, it is perfect habitat for dragons and other small reptiles.
Behind the scenes, a lot of work also went into developing a painted dragon translocation plan and gaining wildlife ethics permits and other approvals to make this rewilding possible.
So how does this rewilding actually happen?
First, lizards have to be trapped at their original location, using pitfall trapping.
Pitfall trapping is a passive way of catching a small animal. It’s when you dig a small hole in the ground and put a bucket in the hole, so that the opening is level with the surface of the ground.
A small fence guides lizards into the trap, and any animals that fall into the trap find it too slippery to make their way back out.
These lizards were then ‘soft-released’ into enclosures in the dunes at Minda Dunes and Henley Beach South where they could be monitored.
When they had gained enough weight to survive, the enclosures were removed, and they were left to adapt to their new habitat.
Research suggests that with the habitat sizes at release sites, between 20 and 50 lizards should be sufficient to establish new populations.
In the wild, painted dragons only live one to 2 years and there can be very high rates of juvenile mortality.
Selecting juveniles for the re-wilding and monitoring of dragon populations aims to reduce any potential impacts on the donor sites, as they have yet to establish their small territories and better adapt to a new home.
The hope is that the translocated painted dragons will settle in at their new location and breed, and the population will steadily grow.
How are the translocated painted dragons faring?
While the project is only in its early days, there are already some promising signs at the Minda Dunes site.
The team has already seen 4 of the lizards in-person, and camera footage has captured a tangle of tails – a pair of painted dragons mating!
Dragon burrows, where they lay eggs, have also been seen, and the first baby dragons have been spotted too.
After hatching in January to March, dragons reach breeding age in about August. After this time, surveys will be undertaken to look for adults, and more will be done in February and March next year to check for new young from the rewilded dragons.
Wondering how the lizards are monitored? At the Minda Dunes site, camera traps were installed overlooking sausage baits that aim to attract ants, which in turn, aim to attract the dragons that feed on the ants.
The team also conducted surveys, recording how many of these lizards they could spot scurrying through the dunes.
As for the Henley Beach South population, monitoring will take place over the coming seasons.
It’s expected to take at least 5 years to rewild painted dragons to their new homes on the central to southern parts of our coastline, but what we’re seeing already is a great step in the right direction towards our vision for a cooler, greener and wilder Adelaide.