In February, two early career ecologists snapped a photo of the lizard and sent it off to a reptile expert in the state of Victoria, who identified the animal as the critically endangered dragon, writes Annika Smethurst for the Sydney Morning Herald. jtOyTe2JHx- Tanya Plibersek June 25, 2023 One hasn’t been seen in Victoria for over 50 years and was thought to be extinct in the wild - until now. This little guy is a Victorian grassland earless dragon. “The rediscovery of a species thought to be extinct inspires hope of finding other lost treasures like the tiger.” “This is an extraordinary second chance,” write conservation ecologist Brendan Wintle and urban ecologist Sarah Bekessy in the Conversation. The reptile, called the Victorian grassland earless dragon, was once commonly found in the region, but its numbers were decimated by habitat loss and predators such as foxes and feral cats, per a statement from the Australian government. A tiny earless lizard thought to be extinct in the wild has been spotted for the first time in more than 50 years in grasslands west of Melbourne, Australia.
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