Monitor Lizard: Things you didn’t know about them

We’ll talk about the Monitor lizard today. In the Genus Varanus family, it is regarded as a very huge lizard. Since they are easily searched lizards, we will inform you about them today.

Introduction

• The Varanidae family includes the huge lizard known as the Monitor Lizard.
• They have substantial bodies, long necks, and robust tails.
• They have robust claws and well-developed limbs. The long, forked tongues of monitor lizards resemble those of snakes.
• It is a semi-aquatic reptile.

Scientific Name

Varanus 

Physical Description

Size

• Only eight inches is the maximum length for the smallest species of the monitor.
• However, a few species can reach lengths of seven to 10 feet and are fairly enormous. 

Color

• It has scales all over its body that might be green, tan, grey, or brown in hue.

Food & Diet

• The majority of monitor lizards are mostly carnivorous, eating a variety of food including insects, crustaceans, arachnids, myriapods, mollusks, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
• Most species start off eating invertebrates as young and then switch to eating vertebrates as they get older.

Habitat

• It can adapt to a variety of habitats.
• In addition to aquatic environments and hot, dry places, they can be found in jungles and rainforests.
• In coastal regions with semiaquatic environments like swamps and mangroves, water monitors like the Asian water monitor can be found.

Lifespan

• They can live 8-30 years. 

Behavior

• Especially with the larger species, monitors prefer to wander around on land where they are largely terrestrial.
• There are also a few species of arboreal and aquatic monitors.
• The majority of monitors only consume animal flesh.
• Although they are often wary of people, monitors can be violent if provoked.
• They are constantly on guard and easily frightened by unexpected movements and noises.
• Their personalities vary widely; some become fairly submissive while others continue to be suspicious of people.
• They all respond immediately and rapidly pick up on the regular feeding times.

Reproduction

• The eggs that monitors lay, which they frequently conceal in a hollow tree stump or cover with earth, range in number from seven to 37 and are oviparous.
• Parthenogenesis is a process that some monitors, like the Komodo dragon, are capable of.

Egg

• Female monitors lay 50 one- to two-ounce eggs around five weeks after mating, typically in burrows.
• She has to dig deep into her fat and nutrient reserves to feed her young because she hasn’t eaten much in months. 

Prey

• Insects, crabs, snakes, fish, and other creatures are just a few of the many different types of food that this creature eat.
• By controlling the number of their prey, they also provide food for larger predators (eg. crocodiles).

Domesticating Them

• For the appropriate person, it can make wonderful pets, but caring for one is very different from caring for a dog or cat.
• It takes patience, acquiring new skills, and regular care to properly maintain this creature. 

Bengal Monitor Lizard

• Large Monitor lizard like the Bengal monitor can be found all over the Indian Subcontinent as well as in some regions of Southeast Asia and West Asia.
• Its length, measured from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail, ranges from roughly 61 to 175 cm (24 to 69 in) in size. This huge lizard is primarily a terrestrial animal.
• Adult monitors hunt mostly on the ground, primarily for arthropods but also for small terrestrial vertebrates, ground birds, eggs, and fish.
• Young monitors may be more arboreal. Younger Bengal monitors are preyed upon by a variety of predators, even though adults have few predators other than people who kill them for food.

Earless Monitor Lizard

• Brown, semi-aquatic earless monitors are indigenous to Borneo, an island in Southeast Asia.
• It is related to the actual monitors and is the sole extant species in the family Lanthanotidae.
• Borneo in Southeast Asia is the only place where the earless monitor can be found.
• These are often found in rainforests, but they can also be found in streams that run through damaged ecosystems like farms, orchards, and palm oil plantations.

Asian Water Monitor Lizard

• A sizable varanid lizard native to South and Southeast Asia is called the Asian water monitor. It is also known as Water Monitor.
• One of the most prevalent monitors in Asia, it can be found on Indonesian islands as well as coastal northeast India, Sri Lanka, and mainland Southeast Asia.
• It prefers to live near water. Since they are carnivores, they eat a variety of prey.
• They have been observed eating snakes, fish, frogs, rodents, birds, and crabs.
• Additionally, they have been observed consuming turtles, young crocodiles, and crocodile eggs.

Nile Monitor Lizard

• It is a sizable member of the monitor family that may be found along the Nile and in most of Sub-Saharan Africa.
• It is the longest lizard in Africa.
• Though they are now extinct in the area, they were rumored to have existed in and around the Jordan River, Dead Sea, and wadis of the Judaean Desert in Israel until the late 19th century.

Monitor Lizard vs Komodo Dragon

• Since Komodo dragons are the largest monitor species that can exist, they are fundamentally bigger than all other monitor lizard species.
• The average Komodo dragon can grow to be 300 pounds and over ten feet long, although the average monitor species is just 3 to 7 feet long.

Fun Facts

• They are regarded as some of the most intelligent reptiles overall and the smartest of all lizards.
• Monitors have excellent vision and don’t blink. Scientists have seen monitors keeping an eye on soaring aircraft.
• Many Monitor lizard, in contrast to many other reptiles, have fast metabolisms and expend energy similarly to mammals.
• Monitors kept as pets have been seen interacting with people and desiring to play.
• Monitors are observant and cunning hunters. Their bites are not harmful to humans, but they are dangerous to smaller animals.

Reference Link

• https://g.co/kgs/eAx18c

Monitor Lizard-FAQ