This lizard was filmed by Katie Visagie at the Sabie River near the Lower Sabie Rest Camp in the Kruger National Park. From what her husband André can deduce, the length of the largest African water monitor is no more than 244 cm. However, this one’s length seems to be much more than that! A second large monitor can be seen on the rocks behind this one at about 38 seconds from the beginning of the video.
Monitors belong to a very old, but highly developed family of lizards. They can climb, walk and swim nimbly, and are sometimes found in the swimming pools of shocked suburban residents! They are diurnal with a diet that includes a wide variety of prey, such as other lizards, amphibians, birds, snakes, turtles and tortoises, eggs, small mammals, centipedes, beetles, molluscs and scorpions. Tortoises are often swallowed whole and monitors can eat centipedes because they are resistant to centipedes’ poisonous secretions. They will sometimes even eat carcasses of animals.
The footage was posted by Katie and André of Two-V Productions on their You Tube channel. We thank them for their great videos. Please subscribe to their YouTube channel and follow their Facebook page. Books in their Op Vlerke series can be ordered from Loot and should also be available in the shops in the rest camps of the Kruger National Park soon. Please note that the books are published in Afrikaans only.
