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| White throated monitor lizard. |
Monitor lizards include various types of the world’s largest lizards known for their long necks, powerful tails and strong, muscular limbs. These are diurnal animals and almost all monitor
lizards are carnivorous.
The white-throated monitor, commonly known as a
rock monitor, is the second largest monitor found in Africa and can live up to
between 12 and 20 years.
This large lizard, which can reach an
impressive 6 feet in length, has a grey or brown head while their throat is
white. Their body has dark coloured rosette-like patterns with a cream coloured
centre and as they age the centre merges with the rosettes creating bands
around their ribcage. Their limbs are sometimes a spotted pale yellow and their
tails have a pattern of dark brown and off-white bands. Colours of individual white-throated monitors can vary.
These monitors have a distinctively blunt
and bulbous snout. Monitors tails, which can grow to be twice as long as their body,
have many uses such as that of a rudder to steer while swimming or for grasping
prey and as a weapon used against predators.
Egyptian legend
The story goes that in the early days of
Egyptian civilization, monitor lizards were chained up to boulders along the
edge of the Nile River. If the lizard was calmly basking in the sun, the water
was believed to be safe from crocodiles but if the lizard was thrashing and
struggling to escape the chains, it meant that crocs were about. The superstition
believed that these lizards monitored the whereabouts of crocodiles hence the
name ‘monitor lizard’.
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| White monitor lizard in its natural habitat. |
Habitat
White throated monitors are found in savanna
or semi-desert regions of southern and central Africa including parts of South
Africa, Angola, Zambia and Mozambique among others.
They are seen existing within many of Africa’s diverse habitats,
including savannas, shrub lands, woodlands, grass lands, rocky outcrops and
combinations of these habitats.
Male monitors are super territorial about their domain of
about 11 km (seven miles), engaging in battle with any other male they
encounter, while females make a home of only just over 3 km (2 miles) in size.
Behaviour
White throated monitors climb trees in order
to hunt prey, escape the heat during a hot African summers day, find protection
from predators or sleep safely at night.
If they come face to face with a predator
on the ground, monitors will puff up their throats and body to appear larger,
while striking with their powerful tail and biting fiercely.
Diet
White throated monitors enjoy a varied diet
of mostly insects, such as millipedes, grasshoppers and beetles, but also eat
anything from snails and snakes through to birds and eggs.
They swallow their food either whole or in
large pieces and are able to dislocate their hyoid bone in order to expand
their throat.
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| The white throat of the monitor. |
Reproduction
During the mating season an approachable
female will almost always climb up a tree in wait for a male to discover her.
The attracted pair mate, for one to two days, after which the male leaves in
search for another female monitor.
In the early summer months up to 50 eggs
are laid in a clutch by a female monitor, dependent on her size. She will use
her long and sharp claws to dig her own hole or even use a termite mound or
rodent den to lay the eggs.
Did you know?
Monitor lizards shed their teeth and grow new ones throughout
their lives.
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