The dragons basking in the toasty sunlight

We have dragons roaming Navilu Kaadu. Not the winged, fire-belching sort. Our dragons are foot-long spiny, scaled lizards with sinewy tails. They are easy-going and love basking in toasty sunlight and skittering up and down tree trunks. They are the oriental garden lizards (Calotes versicolor), commonly called ‘Hentegoddha’ and ‘Othiketha’ in Kannada lore, with aliases aplenty — changeable lizard, common garden lizard, Indian garden lizard, eastern garden lizard, crested tree lizard and bloodsucker. The last moniker is derived from the red morph of the male’s head in the breeding season. These lizards thrive in urban gardens, open fields and scrubland. They are distributed all over Asia and are among over 350 species of lizards that make up the family Agamidae, many of which are called dragons. They can change their skin colour moderately, to hide from predators and to attract female lizards.

We first spotted a handsome specimen two years after we anchored at Navilu Kaadu. He was regal, ochre scales glinting in the July sun with spikes adorning his back, from the neck to the base of the tail. He had descended from the trees to snack on termite swarms after a spell of rain. The lizard perched along the arc of a stick planted as a sapling marker, in a stance that could put an ace surfer to shame. This one was quite the poser, though he could be elusive when he chose to. I once spotted him camouflaged on the snag of the Banni mara. His scales were less yellow and more grey-brown, blending with the ashen dry bark. And so, I called him Turncoat. He stealthily shifted sideways when he spotted me and shot up the tree.

Ever since, we have been bumping into Turncoat and his kind all over Navilu Kaadu. How do they manage to change their skin colour? These lizards have special cells in their skin called chromatophores that contain light-reflecting pigments. The lizards expand the skin cells for a lighter hue, scattering the colour pigments. They contract the chromatophores to appear darker. Such a neat trick!

Oriental garden lizards are insectivorous and keep agricultural pests in check. As ambush predators, they lie in wait and rely on visual cues such as prey movement to hunt grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, geckos, smaller lizards, birds and rodents. They have teeth designed for gripping. So, they clench and daze their hapless quarry with vigorous shaking and gulp them down whole. Juvenile lizards are preyed on by birds and mammals.

These nimble-footed dragon lizards have some more quirky traits. They are gifted with splendid vision, enhanced by eyes that move independently of each other. They astutely deploy each eye for a different task. So, if one eye tracks prey, the other could be scanning the surroundings for predators.

Male garden lizards fiercely defend their territories and warn off contenders with their signature head bobs, push-up style moves and other combat techniques that would make Bruce Lee proud! During the breeding season between May and October, debonair males turn out nattily attired with a crimson head and shoulders, and ebony dewlap. Oriental garden lizards cannot survive on land sprayed with chemical weedicides and pesticides, making them great bioindicators for the health of the ecosystems they inhabit. They form an integral part of the food chain and take on the mantle of both predator and prey, preserving the balance of ecosystems. We are chuffed that these dragons now find Navilu Kaadu a worthy lair.

Rooting for Nature is a monthly column on an off-kilter urban family’s trysts with nature on a natural farm.

The author posts as @ramyacoushik. Reach her at [e-mail]