Chinese Water Dragon

Chinese Water Dragon (Physignathus cocincinus) is an agamid or gecko recorded for Vietnam in the project inventory. The supporting occurrence note is “Expert range list”. Its use of the exact scientific name is important because Southeast Asian lizard taxonomy changes frequently and several close relatives were described only recently. Where a familiar English name is present it is retained; otherwise the scientific name avoids inventing an unsupported vernacular name (project species data; Reptile Database taxonomy).

Water dragons are large, diurnal, semi-arboreal agamids closely associated with wooded streams and rivers. They climb well, swim readily and may dive to escape. Their broad diet includes invertebrates, small vertebrates and plant foods. Females lay eggs in excavated soil nests. These are general species-wide traits and do not supply a Vietnam-specific clutch or incubation figure (general Physignathus ecology; published husbandry and natural-history summaries).