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The Asian water monitor has a natural affinity towards water, inhabiting the surroundings of lakes, rivers, ponds, swamps and various riparian habitats, including sewers, city parks, and urban waterways. It is an excellent swimmer and hunts fish, frogs, invertebrates, water birds, and other types of aquatic and amphibious prey.
The black rough-necked monitor (V. rudicollis) was previously in the closely related subgenus Empagusia, but genomic analyses show it is actually the basalmost member of Soterosaurus, having split from the V. salvator species complex (which is composed of all the other Southeast Asian water monitor species) 14 million years ago during the middle Miocene.
V. cumingi has the highest degree of yellow coloration among all the endemic water monitors in the Philippines. The V. cumingi is a large lizard and medium-sized monitor lizard. The largest specimens its species can reaching a length of 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) with a snout-vent length of 60 cm (24 in) and 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) in a mass.
Monitor lizards are hunted, and their body fat, extracted by boiling, is used in a wide range of folk remedies. [33] Comparison to water monitor (Varanus salvator) In Sri Lanka, the Asian water monitor is considered venomous and dangerous when confronted, while the Bengal monitor (Thalagoya) is considered harmless and rather defenseless.
Other common names include the African small-grain lizard, [4] as well as iguana and various forms derived from it, [5] such as guana, water leguaan [6] or river leguaan (leguan, leguaan, and likkewaan mean monitor lizard in South African English, and can be used interchangeably).
These aftereffects of monitor bites were once thought to be due to oral bacteria alone, but recent studies have shown that venom glands are in the lower jaws of most if not all species. [16] [17] Degree of envenomation depends on how long the animal is able to bite down and chew on its target to work venom into the wound.
The best studied water monitor population of the Philippines is that of Calauit ( Gaulke 1989 ), a small islet belonging to the Calamian Island Group at the north-easterly margin of Palawan Province. Gaulke ( 1989 ) provided morphological data for 167 specimens . The longest specimen had a total length of 1880 mm with parts of its tail missing.
Argus monitors have great senses, with smell being the most acute. Like all monitors, they have a forked tongue and a vomeronasal organ in the roof of its mouth. It uses this organ in the same manner as snakes and other monitor species do and can often be seen flicking their tongues in search of a meal. [citation needed]