Aww... It’s a cute baby dragon. It keeps trying to catch fish in a nearby pond.

And look! It has grown wings! It must be close to maturing.

Young dragons are relatively defenseless. They are born with relatively soft scales, which are shed and replaced with harder ones as the hatchling matures. Once a hatchling’s wings grow in, it typically marks the beginning of maturation. At this point they are often capable of hunting on their own and are usually left alone by their mother.

This hatchling is an anomaly. Males of his species are generally timid and submissive toward other dragons. Not this little guy though. He is loud, brash, bold and not afraid to show off. Some attribute this to his inability to age and mature. Blacktip males generally adopt their signature attitude as they grow, though some gain it later than others. As a result of his odd personality, the hatchling doesn't live among other Blacktips.

Instead, he took up residence among a flock of local seagulls. He learned to prowl the beachside for scraps as they did and skim the sea for fish, finding a way to keep himself fed well enough. Eventually, proud as ever, he started bossing around the seagulls and became their "Leader" through use of his sharp claws and sharper teeth. Humans were driven from the small beach that became his territory as a result.

On warm summer days the hatchling can be seen strutting along the sand, full of himself and followed by his feathered "Friends".