Dragons... part of the imaginary world of Harry Potter...
Breathing fire and turning enemies to stone.
With spiky armour, razor sharp claws... and wings.
But do dragons really exist?
Stand by - to enter the real dragons' lair
There is a family of lizards called the agamids.
They live in some of the most hostile places on earth...
and look like the magical creatures of myth and folklore...
so much so, that they are better known as the 'Dragon lizards.'
But do these dragons live up to the legend?
The dragon's mythical domain is fire...
This is a bush fire in Australia's Northern Territory...
a terrifying force that engulfs everything in its path...
Animals flee before it...
and birds of prey patrol the fire's edge
looking for victims to pluck from the burning embers.
But amazingly, there is one animal that thrives alongside this inferno
The frilled dragon lizard.
As the flames recede,
frilled dragons appear, apparently preferring the quickly cooling ground
to the untouched forest just metres away.
Although they don't breathe fire, they are attracted to it.
New research has shown that fire provides an extra fertile hunting ground
Surprising numbers of insects can survive a forest fire,
but with the vegetation burnt away, they have nowhere to hide...
... and are easily caught on the hop.
Frilled dragons normally live in the trees.
On the ground and in the open,
they are dangerously exposed and need to watch the sky.
But it's a risk worth taking...
here, amid the ashes with death all around,
the dragons find a whole new lease of life.
But now this one has caught a killer's eye...
A kite... an expert scavenger,
searching for the tiniest movement below that might indicate food.
The dragon instantly responds... with a dramatic show of strength.
It uses a complex network of bones and muscles
to erect flaps of skin around its neck
that open like an umbrella and make it look very ferocious.
Relative to body size, this is the largest display in the reptile world...
but will it be enough to frighten off the kite?
The giant ruff unnerves the kite
and buys valuable time for the dragon...
Before its enemy can circle for another pass,
the dragon sprints for safety...
and disappears into puffs of smoke.
Like all cold-blooded reptiles,
dragon lizards need the sun's heat to warm up each morning.
Bearded dragons have a special trick
- they flush dark, to absorb as much energy as possible.
This male will bask
until his body temperature is high enough for him to become active.
Now paler and fully alert, he can set about finding a mate...
and when he does track down a likely female,
he'll try a unique approach to win her heart.
The male takes a centre stage to show her his spectacular dragon dance.
She seems to like it - and joins in.
Exactly what these arm waves and head bobs mean is still a mystery.
Some believe the arm waving signals submission,
and the bobbing head means dominance.
Whatever they are saying,
it seems the dragon dance has worked its magic...
but the mood soon changes once mating begins...
The male mounts the female and bites down hard on the skin around her neck...
she may even run around in this position with the male still on her back.
It's a brief, one-off encounter,
and afterwards the male skedaddles.
The pair probably won't meet ever again.
To find the ultimate flesh and blood dragon
we must leave the Australian deserts and visit a very different world бн
бн the lush rainforests of the far east.
Here there is a dragon lizard that is, perhaps,
closer to the mythical winged beast than any other...
This is the Draco.
The draco has given up life on the ground to become truly at home in the trees.
But the treetops have their own dangers...
In the canopy there are eyes everywhere...
бн the dracos need to be well camouflaged.
Both male and female dracos are extremely territorial.
But how do they communicate with one another
without attracting unwanted attention from their enemies?
Semaphore... by flashing tiny flags of colour at each other.
Dracos do this by erecting patches of loose skin around their throat.
And for additional effect they fan out extra folds along their sides.
These split-second throat flashes are intended only for the eyes of other dragons.
But the butterfly effect is not so short and sharp.
So what do they use these flaps for and why?
One answer comes from where they live.
The jungle canopy may look close-packed,
but actually the trees don't always touch.
Huge spaces in between can leave tree dwellers isolated.
For the dracos, trees are islands in the sky...
and this can be a problem
if they need to leave their particular island in a hurry.
Forest fires are surprisingly common in the rainforest.
Dracos trapped in a burning tree could be doomed.
The smoke and flames gradually drive the dracos higher and higher.
These dragons aren't drawn to fire.
On the contrary, they've found a way to leave it behind...
They can fly!
The flaps of skin the draco use for signaling are also real dragon's wings.
Technically speaking, they don't actually fly
- but they can glide 40 or 50m from one treetop to another,
through the smoke to safety.
The draco is a real, flesh and blood flying dragon.
It has abilities as marvelous as any from the pages of a book.
If dragons had ever existed,
they too would have had to use their magical powers to solve the same problems
- of finding food and water, mating and escaping danger.
So next time you're reading stories of magical creatures
soaring through the air in far-off lands,
remember, somewhere on this earth
there is a place where living dragons really do exist.
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