Land Monitor Lizards mating - Wild World TV - Wild Life - 16

Land Monitor Lizards
Monitor lizards are lizards in the genus Varanus, the only extant genus in the family Varanidae. They are native to Africa, Asia, and Oceania, and one species is also found in the Americas as an invasive species. About 80 species are recognized.
There are two types of monitor lizards in Sri Lanka, the more common Land Monitor Lizard (Varanus bengalensis) and the Water Monitor Lizard (Varanus salvator). The common land Monitor is normally found in hot lowland country of Sri Lanka. It is seldom seen in parts of the country over 500m above sea level as it gets too cold for them. They have adapted to surviving in lots of different habitats ranging for jungle rain forests to desert scrub.
The local farmers encourage them to wander around their fields as they eat vermin. Monitor lizards have long necks, powerful tails and claws, and well-developed limbs. The adult length of extant species ranges from 20 cm in some species, to over 3 m in the case of the Komodo dragon, though the extinct varanid known as megalania (Varanus priscus) may have been capable of reaching lengths more than 7 m. Most monitor species are terrestrial, but arboreal and semiaquatic monitors are also known. While most monitor lizards are carnivorous, eating eggs, smaller reptiles, fish, birds, insects, and small mammals, some also eat fruit and vegetation, depending on where they live.
The various species cover a vast area, occurring through Africa, the Indian subcontinent, to China, the Ryukyu Islands in southern Japan, south to Southeast Asia to Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, Australia, and islands of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. The West African Nile monitor (Varanus stellatus) is now found in South Florida. Monitor lizards also occurred widely in Europe in the Neogene, with the last known remains in the region dating to the Middle Pleistocene.
Most monitor lizards are almost entirely carnivorous, consuming prey as varied as insects, crustaceans, arachnids, myriapods, mollusks, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Most species feed on invertebrates as juveniles and shift to feeding on vertebrates as adults. Deer make up about 50% of the diet of adults of the largest species, Varanus komodoensis. In contrast, three arboreal species from the Philippines, Varanus bitatawa, Varanus mabitang, and Varanus olivaceus, are primarily fruit eaters. Although normally solitary, groups as large as 25 individual monitor lizards are common in ecosystems that have limited water resources.
At night they keep warm by hiding in holes, burrows and protective ledges. They start their day sunbathing to get their body temperature up. You will not normally see them very active in the morning. These are one of the animals you will find actively hunting during the hot midday sun. Their long nails on the end of their digits enables them to climb up tree trunks vertically.
The female can lay over 30 eggs which she puts in a hollow depression she has dug out and then covers them with soil. Some have been known to use holes in fallen trees or a rotting tree stump as a resting place for their eggs. Incubation periods vary depending on daily temperatures. Try to spot its tongue. It is a purple color and is forked. They have odour particle detector sensors at the end of each tip that helps them detect their next meal.
The tongue brings these particles back into its mouth where another sensory organ called the Jacobson organ can gauge the the different strengths on each forked tongue tip and can then work out which direction to go. In Sri Lanka the Land Monitor Lizard is listed as 'commercially threatened' as they are considered 'bush meat' They are hunted to provide meat that is sold to locals.
Kingdom - Animalia
Phylum - Chordata
Class - Reptilia
Order - Squamata
Family - Varanidae
Genus - Varanus - (Merrem, 1820)
Type species
Varanus varius - (Shaw, 1790 - Subgenera)

[@pinkgirl9285]

👍

[@wildworldtv]

Thanks chure

[@thanujananayakkara6168]

👍👍

[@wildworldtv]

Thank you

[@lakshaniranasinghe5609]

👍

[@wildworldtv]

Thank you

[@shashihettiarachchi7939]

👍👍👍

[@wildworldtv]

Thank you

[@wsmomin5040]

​@@wildworldtv😅o

[@aaa-mf8rv]

👍👍👍👍

[@wildworldtv]

Thank you