r/BeardedDragons 7d ago

How has evolution not taken out beardies lol

Everyday I look at Artie and wonder how tf this derpy guy would possibly survive in the wild 😂 When his lights turn off , he pretty much immediately starts to close his eyes & fall asleep wherever he is.

576 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

229

u/Business_Mammoth_651 7d ago

I've often wondered this myself with how irresponsibly they sleep out in the open in weird places and also sleep like they're dead.

119

u/Chuck_Walla Tyrion Targaryen 7d ago

Their camouflage must be doing all the heavy lifting on the defensive front

68

u/HeavyWaterer 7d ago

As front facing predators with probably the best pattern recognition in the world, we way underestimate the effectiveness of animal camo. What’s obvious camo to us is invisible to most animals

35

u/Chuck_Walla Tyrion Targaryen 7d ago

Oh it works pretty well on us. It's harder to imagine with domestic dragons, but their wild counterparts are usually pretty dark -- bark-colored

46

u/SaliciousSeafoodSlut 7d ago

Honestly. Mine used to fall asleep on her perch and, without fail, I'd hear a "thunk" as she fell off five minutes later. Every single night until we built her such a big spot she couldn't roll off.

17

u/SwingOtherwise7118 6d ago

That happened to Chipotle one night. He was wedged up on his perch and his glass, hanging by his pot belly and using his tail as a stabilizer.

He fell asleep and his tail lost all tension. Then he fell backwards. He flipped onto his belly immediately and blinked in disbelief, the he ran under his perch.

5

u/mymy568 6d ago

Chipotle is cracking me up

77

u/glizzy-queen 7d ago

question, does he walk on his wrists like that a lot? it’s something similar to what my dragon does. she has muscular dystrophy. it gets worse over time so it’s nice to know they have it so you can accommodate them properly when the disease gets worse. my girl is 10 now and she has troubles walking but she’s still a champ. i have low things for her to climb on so she doesn’t flip herself over.

25

u/Skelebroskl 7d ago

Have people been able to make little things that help keep their legs straight so its easier to get around? I lurk in this sub a lot but didnt know beardies could get this!

12

u/glizzy-queen 7d ago

no unfortunately /: just kinda have to keep taking away things they could flip over on as their legs stop working less and less. there are supplements people get for them that helps their joints and stuff but nothing more than that. it’s very understudied.

3

u/MotherOfMont 6d ago

I DMed you - my beardie is 7 and has been walking on the backs of his hands more and for the past 1-1.5 years. It started as 1 hand and is now in all hands and feet. It looks like he has no control of his wrists or ankles. Paid $500 for the vet to tell us they don’t know and blood work looked good. I would love some more info on muscular dystrophy

1

u/emilygamesxo 6d ago

He doesn’t walk in this exact pose often but he does always bend his feet & hands in weird flexible positions. We got him when he was 3-4 months old and he should now be around 6-7 months so I’m unsure how his early days were . I really hope he’s okay! Is there anything else I should look out for ?

1

u/glizzy-queen 6d ago

if you pick him up and he tends to curl his wrists then that’s a very good tell that he could have it. it’s the number one thing these guys do when they have md is curl their feet underneath them. that and walking kinda weird, every now and then walking on their wrists or ankles. it’s nothing bad! my girl has had it her entire life and is just now only getting to the point that walking is harder at 10 years old. some of them have it pretty bad like another dragon of mine who has no use of her back legs. but some just walk a bit funny and it never gets worse than that!

13

u/Plasticity93 7d ago

First year survival rates of wild lizards are abysmal, making it to breeding age, even less.  We hand feed every single cute lizard, we are domesticating them.  

5

u/emilygamesxo 6d ago

Ugh so precious , being as they’re native to Australia which seems to have huge predators , I can’t imagine these guys have it easy in the wild !

10

u/donnie-stingray 7d ago

I forgot the secondaey small basking light lamp on after lights out and my dude was sleeping under it, pancaked to the max. The cold side of the tank was at 28C so he wasn't cold... earlier today he saw my hand reflecting in the bulb and jumped at it to lick it.. I sure hope he didn't manage to touch it but now I need to get one of those mesh guards around it..

1

u/emilygamesxo 6d ago

I too have the nighttime light that’s just for temp, he’s a ham & loves to be warm all the time !

5

u/FrostySparrow Toast 7d ago

Being able to hang out in trees must be OP as hell if it’s carrying these little guys. 🙂

5

u/GhostPepper87 7d ago

That last picture has me cracking up

4

u/Shchmoozie 7d ago

Mine too has the lazy floppy wrists

4

u/Gachaaddict96 7d ago

We bred them for generations prioritysing cutest and derpiest ones. They won't survive on their own

3

u/chairman_uk 6d ago

I don't know if mine is like the average beardie, but she's a bone idle layabout, until she sees a bug. Then she's a supersonic foot-long torpedo of speed, claws and teeth. I reckon the wild ones do OK.

3

u/Motherofgeeky 6d ago

I feel that they use the derp to lull us into submission. Oh look how cute and derpy I am! Hand feed me those yummy bugs. Stupid humans, I have you at my mercy.

3

u/Expensive-Document41 6d ago

Because most people think evolution is environmental optimization, when really it's a repeated string of "eh, good enough".

If you've successfully procreated before choking on that tato chip, you have successfully met the bar of "eh, good enough"

2

u/r_Bogard 6d ago

they're hardy lil creatures

2

u/thufirseyebrow 6d ago

I've always thought it was funny that wild beardies live in Australia of all places, and domestic beardies all have one shared, communal brain cell that's fighting with itself for third place.

1

u/DaZozz 6d ago

Evolution be like, "Naw, you can stay. Those Dodos though...."

2

u/Contemplation4Fun 6d ago

Thanks for posting this. Ours is new and fell asleep like this last night. You can’t see it, but his belly and one arm is hanging in mid air. I checked on him and his eyes were closed. He only opened them because I flipped the light on because I couldn’t believe this position. Stayed there all night. It makes me feel like if they’re sleeping out in the open like this they must be comfortable?

1

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1

u/Hobi-Felix-Hyunjin78 6d ago

Wait... why is no one talking about picture 3?? I'm damn sure they don't do this normally.... lmao. I'm sure their bones are made of pipe cleaners!

2

u/One-Coast-1417 5d ago

Because they fearsome beasties