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The post Lost for 50 Years, This Tiny Dragon Now Needs 500 to Be Safe<\/a> appeared first on A-Z Animals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dragons are typically the stuff of legends and folklore. In Australia, this is not the case. The country was once a hotspot for a dragon species that was both quick and wily.<\/p>\n Over time, expansion and progress destroyed the dragons\u2019 habitat, and the species was presumed to be extinct. That is, until one fateful day in 2023 when the species was rediscovered.<\/p>\n Recently, Australia\u2019s tiny \u201cdragon\u201d has gotten a second chance at life. This time around, the Victorian grassland earless dragon is being fiercely protected in hopes that the species will one day again be self-sustaining and become a conservation success story<\/a> in Australia.<\/p>\n The Victorian grassland earless dragon was believed to be the first lizard<\/a> species to go extinct in Australia in the modern era. During the 1960s, the population declined significantly. By 1969, the last of the dragons had been spotted in the wild.<\/p>\n It was not until February 2023 that two ecologists exploring the Bacchus Marsh in Melbourne<\/a> snapped a photo that would change everything. Unbeknownst to the ecologists, they had found a Victorian grassland earless dragon. The conservation response was immediate.<\/p>\n The Victorian grassland earless dragon is quite small. At just six inches long with no external ear openings, the light-brown lizard with three white stripes running the length of its body is very cagey. Their coloring allows them to easily camouflage themselves in their environment, and their size allows them to hide in burrows<\/a> or holes in the ground.<\/p>\nVictorian Grassland Earless Dragons Were Once Thought Extinct<\/h2>\n