Lizard Turns Australian Influencer Into Total 'Sugar Mama' in Sweet Video
For one influencer and marketing executiveliving in Byron Bay, Australia, there’s only one fan that matters—her neighbor, the wild water lizard who comes to her patio every day. Hannah Rehmann, a German influencer now living (and posting) in Australia, the wildlife down under is one of the perks of her relocation, especially the water dragon she discovered on her property and befriended in a series of adorable videos.
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“I recently moved into a new property,” she writes in the video, “But I also moved into his territory.”
Related: Video of Lizard Enjoying His Bath Is So Captivating We Can't Even
After noticing the lizard carefully watching her every time she went out on her patio, she decided to befriend him.
Soon, with treats and patience, the woman was able to coax the water dragon to joining her on her sun lounger, and even give him pets and scritches.
“Now he wants to hang every day,” she says, over clips of the water dragon scampering over her laptop keyboard and kissing her feet. She named the little critter Karl.
After talking to the owners of the property, she discovered that Karl has been a regular on the patio for years. “However, he never got this closer to anyone else so that makes me feel special.” She writes in the comments. “Water Dragons are very common in Australia, but they are wild and not usually indoor pets.”
All About Australian Water Dragons
Australian water dragons are regularly found in the wild in the warmer areas of Australia, anywhere where there is adequate tree cover and large bodies of water. They like warmer temperatures and spend much of their day basking in the sun (such as on this woman’s patio), and eating insects and small vertebrates like fish, birds, or small mammals. However, as omnivores, they also eat some vegetation and (rarely) fruit. They grow to about two or three feet long, and are often kept as pets in other places, where much care needs to be taken that they get sufficient UV light and warmth. They are related—albeit distantly—to the far better known animal the Iguana.
Should You Feed Wild Animals?
In the comments of the post, a small controversy brew about the ethics of what Hannah is doing by “befriending” and feeding this wild water dragon.
“Relax,” she says to the naysayers. “I saw him catching flies the other day.”
But still the argument rages on, because you can’t do anything on the internet without someone forming an opinion about it. One wonders if they get this up in arms about bird feeders.
Then again, it turns out people do debate about the “ethics” of bird feeders.
The problem with feeding wild animals is that if they become used to the attentions of humans—a process known as habituation. This makes them far more helpless to survive in the wild and hunt and forage for their own food. Additionally, if the source of human attention disappears—if this woman moves away—the animal may expect attention from other humans and become a nuisance. Other people not react so well to a lizard climbing on them every time they step out onto the patio.
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