Canberra Grassland Earless Dragons to be released from Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve

Thirty of the endangered lizard species bred at Tidbinbilla, alongside 10 from the Melbourne Zoo, are a step closer to bolstering numbers in the Canberra region, the only location the subspecies is found.

Two populations of Canberra grassland earless dragons are known to exist in the wild in the ACT, the Majura valley colony in the north and the Jerrabomberra valley in the south - divided by Canberra Avenue.

Development remains the native species' biggest threat - an access road proposed for Canberra Airport expected to destroy more of the temperate grassland habitat if it goes ahead.

The 40 dragons recently relocated within Tidbinbilla will be released at a secret site, with ACT Parks using radio tracking to gain insight into how they use their habitat to inform how it's managed in the future.

Jess Thomson is a PhD student at the University of Canberra, studying behaviour and populations of the tiny native species.

She said less than 1 per cent of grassland that makes up the dragons habitat remains in the ACT. The north and south fragmentation of the two populations has limited they're capacity to travel and breed.

Ms Thomson said this impacts genetic diversity and, as a result, the species' capacity to thrive.

The breeding facility within the reserve is attempting to create the most genetically robust population possible. Biomass mismanagement, an abundance of kangaroos and warming temperatures are all ongoing threats to its survival in the wild.

Environment Minister Rebecca Vassarotti said halting and reversing the damage done to Australia's natural environment meant testing and trialling approaches to tackle extinction rates and re-introducing native fauna back into the wild.

"Our Canberra grassland earless dragon breeding colony at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve is an example of that work," she said.

"The advantages of genetic diversity include greater potential for disease resistance, drought tolerance and other factors that can help this species survive under different environmental pressures."

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Ms Vassarotti wrote to Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek last year, outlining her concerns for the proposed airport access road development.

"If we have made a commitment to zero new extinctions, proposals such as this are pretty well sealing the fate of populations such as the Canberra earless dragon," she said.

"We know that the population out there is a specific subspecies and it is under significant threat.

'We are investing significant amounts of money into rehabilitating the species and looking at how we can reintroduce them into the wild, it is very problematic when we at the same time are looking at removing what we know is very, very limited habitat."

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