# South Australia Part 1 - Ngarkat Conservation Park



## jordo (Jan 18, 2013)

I have pulled this from my blog. I couldn't be bothered re formatting all of the scientific names into italics again so I deleted them. Check out the original blog for those details: http://whawha88.wordpress.com/
Enjoy.

In September 2012 I went on a field trip to South Australia to help my mate Jose with his PhD research. Jose is investigating dragon behaviour, specifically the signaling behaviour used by many species to communicate during territorial disputes or courtship displays.

During our three week adventure the plan was to go to Ngarkat, Dangalli, Flinders Ranges and Gawler Ranges to try and find and record HD videos of dragon interactions. Sounds easy right?

After Jose picked me up from Ballarat we headed for the border and took a rest stop in the Little Desert for a leg stretch and some light herping. We found several species here before moving on to Ngarkat. I’d just acquired some new camera gear to experiment a bit with lighting, so some of the photos didn’t turn out great (but they improve!).




IMG_1128.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Garden skink, a common species across south eastern Australia.




IMG_1167.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Robust Striped Skink




IMG_1148.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr



IMG_1141.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Male painted dragon. This was one of our target species but Jose's permits only covered work in SA, not Vic. Image below showing the pronounced preanal and femoral pores of male dragons.




IMG_1154.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr



IMG_1152.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Female painted dragon with more subtle preanal and femoral pores (bottom image).

We arrived at Ngarkat in the afternoon and after a bit of sun and a short walk around near the campsite we came across a few painted dragons, one of Jose’s target species, and a couple of birds. Jose is analyzing the signaling behaviour on a 3D scale so to do this two video cameras were used which had to be mounted on the same frame and be stationary when recording. So we set up all the gear, including a funky looking 3D cube dubbed “the weather station” - a reference structure to calibrate the videos, it is made of polypipe, metal rods and 27 ping-pong balls! I wish I'd taken a photo of it!




IMG_1230.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Painted dragon




IMG_1183.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Female golden whistler




IMG_1237.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Yellow-rumped thornbill




IMG_1186.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Striated Pardalote

After getting out there and locating some more painted dragons and eventually some mallee dragons we quickly learnt that catching their behaviour on video would be no simple task. It took a bit of time to get the two cameras aligned on the same target and by that time the “target” was long gone. Not to mention most signaling behaviour is directed towards another dragon so we were basically trying to get within a few meters of wild dragons before they ran into each other and began interacting.




IMG_1272.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr



IMG_1277.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Mallee dragon, males have black markings on the throat and chest

Over the next few days we chased mallee and painted dragons enough to eventually get some footage of a couple of mallee dragons “head bobbing” to each other. And of course the bonus of camping in such a nice place for a few days is turning up some other awesome critters.




IMG_1285.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr



IMG_1303.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Bardick 




IMG_1318.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Common scaly-foot




IMG_1352.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Marble-faced legless lizard




IMG_2040.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Marbled gecko




IMG_1183.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Juvenile shingleback

As well as being an excellent home for many reptile species the spinifex was a great host for invertebrate life as well, the spiky grass provides a safe barrier agains many predators such as birds and when the spinifex dies it can form nice dense mats that provide protective insulation against the hot days and cold nights.




IMG_1367.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
These metallic moths would fly out of the spinifex if it was disturbed.




IMG_1793.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Female metallic cockroach carrying an egg case.

The wildflowers were in full bloom at this time of year so on the quiet dragon catching (cool) days I got some shots.




IMG_1249.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Pigs ear




IMG_1261.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Tea tree




IMG_1260.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
Flame heath, a favourite food of emus.




IMG_1253.jpg by Jordan de Jong, on Flickr
These sun orchids, true to their name, would only open on nice sunny days and stay closed overnight or in overcast weather.

The challenge of recording the dragons wasn’t the only problem either; the weather was pretty bad for most of the time. Freezing, blowing a gale, raining etc. This wasn’t good for our sun loving dragons, so we did what any reptile lover would deem the only sensible option in such a situation. We went north...

(DISCLAIMER: We revisited Ngarkat on the way back to try for a few more days after refining our technique, but I can’t actually remember if the weather was worse the first stop or the last. This fits well into the story though…)

Stay tuned for Part 2!!


----------



## MonitorMayhem (Jan 18, 2013)

very cool pics thanks for sharing some nice colors on some of those dragons


----------



## Shotta (Jan 18, 2013)

awesome photots beautiful animals  what is that blue coloured dragon called?
thanks for sharing


----------



## Tipsylama (Jan 18, 2013)

Excellent photos jordo, will we be seeing the footage you recorded of some dragons?


----------



## TheJoyces (Jan 18, 2013)

They are so amazing. What awesome photos.


----------



## jordo (Jan 21, 2013)

Thanks folks.



Nilesh said:


> awesome photots beautiful animals  what is that blue coloured dragon called?
> thanks for sharing


Painted dragon, it's in the text 



Tipsylama said:


> Excellent photos jordo, will we be seeing the footage you recorded of some dragons?


That belongs to my mate who's doing the research and I suspect he wont upload any videos of it until he's published the research. Sorry! When/if he does put some of the clips on youtube I'll link them in my blog.

Cheers, Jordan


----------



## fantapants (Jan 21, 2013)

The Bardick is a great find, never found one in S.A. but did have luck in South West W.A. when i nearly stepped on one


----------



## jordo (Jan 21, 2013)

I nearly trod on this one. It was late in the arvo and pretty cold so it was very unexpected.


----------



## Mangy_Wombat (Jan 21, 2013)

Stunning photos there, a lovely mix of reptiles, birds and flora.


----------

