Bearded dragons are lizards that live in the deserts, savannas, scrublands, and subtropical forests of Australia. Due to their friendly demeanor, permanent smiles, and idle nature, they’re also commonly kept as pets worldwide. And, while many people are familiar with the bearded dragon, some quirky facts about these lizards can be surprising.

You may know that bearded dragons get their name from the spikelike projections on their necks; as such, reptile hobbyists affectionately refer to them as “beardies.” Some facts about these fascinating lizards are not common knowledge, however. For example, there are eight species of bearded dragon, plus a range of colors and “morphs” developed through captive breeding. The six species of bearded dragon assessed by the IUCN, so far, all have stable populations in their native mainland Australia and are classed as species of least concern.

Discover more about the gentle bearded dragon, including the lizard’s amazing ability to shift between sexes and its absolutely bizarre powder urine.

1. Bearded Dragons Can Climb Trees

Although wild bearded dragons are mostly terrestrial, they’re technically semi-arboreal and can become expert tree climbers when needed—say, when food is unavailable at ground level or when a predator is pursuing them. As avid baskers, they’ll also scale trees for a good patch of sun or to show dominance by basking at a higher level than another bearded dragon.

2. They Wear Their Emotions on Their Chins

These dragons’ signature beard behaves almost like a mood ring, going black when the animal feels threatened, stressed, or aroused. During these various emotional states, its beard can also expand and the dragon can puff up its entire body to look big. In a calm and happy state, the pouch under a beardie’s chin will be similarly colored to the rest of its body with spines that rest flat against its skin.

3. They Are Legally Bound to Their Homeland

Australia has prohibited the export of its wildlife, including bearded dragons, since the ’60s. Yet, even after that date—between 1974 and 1990, some have estimated—a stock of bearded dragons was smuggled out of the country for captive breeding.

Now, domestic versions of the Aussie lizard can be found all around the world (except Hawaii, where they’re illegal to own because of the threat they pose to the native ecosystem). Though not confirmed, there are believed to be about 900 bearded dragons living in zoos globally.

4. Bearded Dragons Can Regrow Their Teeth

The ability to regenerate teeth is a quality shared by many reptiles. Bearded dragons are unique, though, in that they have both polyphyodont and monophyodont teeth, even on the same jawline. The dragons use a similar biological process to what sharks and geckos use to regrow their polyphyodont front teeth over time; if the monophyodont chompers fall out, they’re gone for good.

5. They Collect Water on Their Heads

The desert where bearded dragons come from is a droughty place, and animals adapt to the arid environment with quirky ways of capturing and storing water. For the Pogona genus, of which the bearded dragon belongs, one of those ways is by capturing water on its own body during rare bouts of rain. These lizards have been observed standing on their hind legs with their heads sloping downward, lapping up the water as it streams down their faces for 20 to 30 minutes at a time.

6. Females Can Store Sperm for Later

Bearded dragons can lay two clutches of 11 to 30 eggs per season after having mated only once. Females have an unusual ability to store sperm in their reproductive tracts and then fertilize the eggs themselves so long as that sperm is put to use within the same breeding period. This allows the female to maximize offspring while minimizing mating, which the male often makes violent by biting his mate’s neck. Bearded dragons reach sexual maturity at one to two years of age.

7. Bearded Dragons Communicate With Nods and Waves

Bearded dragons are beloved for their anthropomorphic body language—namely head bobbing and arm waving. The reason for these motions isn’t entirely understood, but experts believe the waving to be a symbol of submission to a dominant individual. The head bobbing, conversely, is likely a sign of dominance; it’s also exhibited by both sexes to initiate mating.  

Especially humanlike are the examples bearded dragon keepers give of their beardies waving seemingly cordially to them. It’s a touchy subject, though, as some argue that the wave is an indicator of stress.

8. They Can Change Color Like Chameleons

Bearded dragons’ shade-shifting habits are a bit different from those of the chameleon. For starters, the chameleon’s evolving colors are more prominent than the bearded dragon’s, but also, the bearded dragon can isolate parts of the body it wants to change color. Research has linked color changes in the neck region to social interactions and changes to color in the back area to temperature regulation.

In sunny conditions, the bearded dragon will become lighter to reflect rays. In cooler weather, it will turn darker to help it absorb the heat and maintain its ideal internal body temperature of 95 degrees.

9. They Can Sleep Standing Up

Forums in the beardie-owning community are awash with anecdotes about pet dragons sleeping in highly awkward positions, like propped up against the glass walls and ornaments inside their tanks. It’s said that they sleep vertically in the wild too, often up against trees.

Although it’s unclear why they would deviate from their typical and presumably more comfortable belly-down sleeping position, upright snoozing doesn’t seem to be any cause for concern.

10. They Can Run at Human Speed

The bearded dragon’s top speed, believed to be 9 mph, compares to human running speeds. The lizard rarely runs this fast, instead leading a mostly sedentary lifestyle overall. When the time does call for quickness, though, the bearded dragon might raise up on its rear legs and run like a human. Because it carries more weight in the back of the body, being upright helps the dragon optimize its speed.

11. Male Beardies Become Females in Warm Temperatures

Studies have found that male bearded dragons subjected to temperatures 96.8 degrees and above during embryonic development transition to females 100% of the time. Not only are they capable of sex reversal, but female beardies that were originally males (trans beardies, they could be determined) can also produce twice as many eggs as non-trans females.

Even though bearded dragon populations are currently stable, this heat-driven phenomenon raises concern around the reptile’s ability to adapt to climate change, one study said.

12. They Like Their Alone Time

Bearded dragon keepers need not wonder whether their scaly friends are lonely in their tanks all by themselves. Rest assured they aren’t; the reptiles are solitary creatures that may live in colonies consisting of one male and multiple females in the wild but ultimately should not be put in a captive setting with another.

13. They Pee Powder

One of the oddest characteristics of the bearded dragon is the way it urinates. Instead of peeing liquid, it releases uric acid in the form of a white powder or chalky paste—called “urate”—which it has evolved to do as a means of retaining water in the hot, dry Australian wild. It excretes urates through a cloaca, the same cavity from which feces come out.

14. Bearded Dragons Brumate in the Winter

Brumation is a dormancy period similar to hibernation. Bearded dragons brumate for a few weeks to a few months—in the northern hemisphere the signs start around November, but in the wild, beardies start brumating in June, when winter hits Australia.

Brumation begins with sluggishness and a loss of appetite and leads into a long sleep where the dragon’s heart rate, body temperature, and metabolism will all decrease substantially to conserve energy.

15. They Can Carry Salmonella (and Pass It Onto People)

Reptiles, in general, are known to carry salmonella germs in their digestive tracts. Of course, when they defecate, the bacteria can transfer to their skin and then onto humans where reptiles are being regularly handled. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control keeps tabs on salmonella outbreaks across all pet species, and bearded dragons are a recurring source. In June 2022, for example, one outbreak caused 56 people to become ill and 19 hospitalized across 26 states.

The animal welfare group PETA points to this—and their solitary nature, and “rampant abuse and neglect” within the beardie trade—as major reasons why the animals should not be kept as pets.

Robert Irwin spent three weeks leading up to his Dancing With the Stars debut far from the glitzy Hollywood dance floor. He was covered in mud in the Australian bush on Cape York Peninsula, sleeping on a tent floor surrounded by wildlife, and of course, catching crocodiles.  

“That’s the great part of getting to live here,” the 21-year-old Australian told Travel + Leisure. “It’s so easy to get out in the middle of nowhere and just forget everything. You feel like you’re part of something so much bigger than yourself.”

But for the conservationist, there’s a personal significance to the area—it was a place loved by his dad Steve Irwin, who died 19 years ago this month when he was just two years old. “It is where I feel his energy and his passion more than anywhere else,” said Irwin. The Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve protects 35 different ecosystems across 330,000 acres. “It’s a real privilege to get to spend time there,” the proud son said ahead of the trip. “But then I leave straight from the crocodile research expedition—neck-deep in mud—and fly directly to Hollywood for Dancing with the Stars! It’s going to be a bit of a culture shock.”

While he claimed he may not have the dance skills, he’s excited to showcase the Aussie passion. “We definitely have that dancing culture, but we’re far less refined,” he said. “Every silly dance move probably came from us—my go-to was always the sprinkler!” 

And he’s got some winning shoes to fill, as his sister Bindi Irwin took home the Mirror Ball Trophy in 2015. “You could hear the screams of excitement from Australia when I told her I was going to do the show,” he said of his childhood goal to compete, having been there for every step of Bindi’s journey. “The first thing she said is ‘make it your own,’ which has stuck with me.” 

Carving his own path has been something Irwin has done all his life, despite “being on camera since I was literally about the size of a loaf of bread.” While very much following in his family’s footsteps as the zoo manager for Australia Zoo, he’s also put a focus on photography (his Instagram account is @robertirwinphotography), and travels to advocate for the Irwin nonprofit, Wildlife Warriors.

But he really veered his own way this July, taking his first solo trip in a four-wheel drive along the south coast of Queensland into New South Wales. “Traveling on your own brings this new dynamic,” Irwin said, admitting that “at first, it was a little bit daunting.” 

Soon, he found his footing, visiting beaches, surfing, skateboarding, and hiking solo. At one point, he hiked to a tucked-away beach and found no one there. “I remember going, you know what I’m going to do? Absolutely nothing,” he said. “I’m not going to go to my next stop. I’m just going to spend the whole day parked here at this beach, watching the world go by.”

Embracing the “freeing feeling,” he did have a small mishap when he stopped at Coffs Harbour’s The Jetty Pavilion for a salad. “A lot of lovely people wanted to say hi and have a picture,” which he was happy to indulge in. “But I left in a bit of a rush and totally forgot to pay!”

As honest as he is positive, Irwin turned back, only to find that word had gotten out and every media outlet in town was waiting to see if he’d come back to pay. “It was absolutely hilarious,” he said. “And I do have to shout out their salad, which was great!”

Despite the mini hiccup, the solo trip was a throwback to his childhood travels. “If there was the option and time to be able to road-trip somewhere instead of fly, we always took the opportunity,” he said.

When he was four, the family drove from Adelaide to Darwin, stopping in Uluru along the way. “It was just the most wonderful time in my life to get out into the Red Centre, where the dirt’s red in the desert—it gets in your nose, in your pockets, everywhere,” he said. “The sunsets are like nothing you’ve seen, like the saturation has been turned way up. It makes you feel like you’re at one with the natural world.”

And as he got older, he also spent time traveling with just Bindi. “It’s the coolest feeling when you start to grow up and do things on your own, you feel like you’re 10 feet tall,” Irwin said. “Having an older sibling was like I had a second mum. Bindi’s only six years older, but is very conscientious and a real caregiver. I could flex my independence, but I also had almost a parental figure being like, ‘Now you’ve got to brush your teeth!’” Still, he said the two always “have a lot of fun and rarely get on each other’s nerves.” 

While his relationship with Bindi has always been “close-knit,” he admitted he was “extremely jealous” when she got to film a documentary at the Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, where he has yet to visit. “She was sending pictures of her casually chilling out next to a whale shark, and I was internally screaming,” he said. “That’s definitely the next cab off the rank for me!”

Nowadays, family trips include Bindi’s four-year-old daughter Grace, including a recent trip to Disneyland, where she was awestruck by Princess Tiana. “It is the best thing in the whole world, watching your niece do all the things you used to do as a kid,” Irwin said. “Grace has such an incredible energy about her—there is so much of dad’s genetics.”

Those Irwin genes do indeed run deep, as he reflects on his father’s legacy. “He’s the embodiment of passion, of living life to 100 percent,” the TV personality said. “If Australia were a person, it would be my dad. To love your wildlife, to be passionate, to have that spirit of mateship and camaraderie with everyone. He is just a superhero to me.” 

The young Irwin is no doubt his dad’s mini-me, long an unofficial spokesperson for his beloved home. Now he’s teamed up with Tourism Australia, hoping that more travelers will explore the “massive” continent. “People think of it as this little island nation that’s sort of just down, but it’s the same size as the lower 48 United States,” he said. 

The gateway cities of Sydney and Melbourne are the perfect hubs to ease into the Aussie way of life, experiencing both its coffee culture and city buzz, he said. But for Irwin, it’s all about getting out to the beaches in Sydney, where he always goes “straight into the surf.” He also recommends adrenaline seekers go on the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. Over in Melbourne, it’s all about the “next-level” food and wine.

But Irwin says that “the real heart of Australia is when you get out into the bush, whether that’s into the Outback, up north into the rainforest, hitting up the beaches, or heading down south to somewhere like Tasmania, finding these little hidden gems, connecting with the locals—people, and wildlife.”

There’s no place more dear to him than the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, where he grew up inside one of its most coveted attractions, Australia Zoo, just five minutes from a volcanic mountain range and 15 minutes from the beach.

“I had every kid’s dream come true—I quite literally grew up in the middle of a zoo,” he said. “It’s hard for me to even call it a zoo, it’s like a resort for wildlife and hub for conservation.” Set on hundreds of acres, his favorite spot is the kangaroo paddocks, especially seeing “this amazing little relationship unfold” between young visitors and the “peaceful” animals. After hours, he often revels in “joining the roos for a nap.”

Irwin’s also proud of the “beautiful, sustainable, environmentally-focused luxury accommodation,” The Crocodile Hunter Lodge, which opened in 2022. In fact, chatting to us from the lodge, he marveled when a wild kangaroo jumped over to the window. “He’s watching the interview—that’s absolutely classic,” he said, taking a photo of the moment. “That’s the sign of a good zoo when animals are trying to get in!”

But overall for Irwin, there’s a sense of wonderment for all things Aussie. “Where I live is so much more than just home—it’s really where my heart beats from,” he said. “I’ve been lucky enough to travel to just about every corner of the planet. When you come back to Australia, you’re filled with this sense of warmth. There’s no other way to describe it.”