The bearded dragon, Pogona vitticeps (Ahl 1926), is an

agamid lizard that naturally inhabits the inland regions of Australia. In the wild, it prefers temperatures of approximately 33°C (Melville and Schulte, 2001) and will adopt behavioural and physiological strategies to achieve this preferred body temperature. Lizards achieve these kinds of preferred temperatures in the wild through shuttling between warm and cold environments (Brattstrom, 1971), modifying heart rates during heat and cooling (Seebacher and Franklin, 2001), altering peripheral blood flow (Grigg and Seebacher, 1999), changing cloacal evaporative water loss (DeNardo et al., 2004) and via ventilatory mechanisms, manifesting as gaping or panting responses (Heatwole et al., 1973). Numerous lizard species open the mouth widely when heated. The temperature at which this gaping occurs in some lizard species is often well above the preferred temperature, acting as a last-ditch attemp