 The crocodile monitor, Varanus salvadorii, is perhaps responsible for more hospital visits than any other lizard in the USA, despite the fact that only about 200 are legally imported each year. Crocodile monitors have a remarkable set of teeth that inflict deep and severe flesh wounds. The most serious result in permanent disability and almost all crocodile monitor bites leave permanent scars. Read about people's experiences with Varanus salvadorii in our review.
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The short-tailed goanna is the smallest living monitor lizard, and quite possibly the smallest species that has ever existed. They live in desert regions of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland, most often in areas of spinifex.
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V.caudolineatus is a small monitor lizard that occurs only in Western Australia. It does not appear to live around the coast, nor on any offshore islands (Storr 1980). Favoured habitats are grasslands, shrublands and woodlands and it appears to inhabit a wide range of Acacia and spinifex dominated habitats...
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Reprints, bibilography, translations, reviews, reprints, links and more.
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 The yellow monitor is a poorly known species and is considered to be one of the most endangered monitor lizards. It is found only in Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Pakistan (Minton 1966; Smith 1932; Swan & Leviton 1962; Auffenberg et al 1989; Sarker 1987).
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 Dumeril's monitor is a very mysterious animal. It is found in southern parts of Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra and many smaller neighbouring islands including Natu, Bangka and Bellitung.
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The
International Varanid Interest Group is a volunteer-based organization
established to advance varanid research, conservation, and husbandry,
and to promote scientific literacy among varanid enthusiasts worldwide.
Membership to the IVIG is free, and open to anyone with an interest in
monitor lizards. Click Here
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The Yemen monitor was the most magnificent discovery of the 1980's. Specimens had been collected in the late 19th Century and had been in the British Museum since 1903 and 1906 but it had been presumed that the specimens had been mislabelled and must have been collected in Africa.
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 The Sepik monitor is usually known by the name of V.karlschmidti (Mertens 1951). Bohme (1991) recognised that Mertens had redescribed an animal originally named by Ahl (1932). This is another species about which very little is known. They can be distinguished from V.indicus by the possession of smaller scales...
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White's Goanna (baritji is an aboriginal word for white and the lizard is named after its discoverer Dr Neville White) is a small spiny-tailed monitor known at present only from the extreme north of the Northern Territory.
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 The lace goanna is the second largest lizard in Australia. It is widespread in eastern Queensland, eastern New South Wales and most of Victoria but is restricted to the extreme south-east of South Australia (Houston 1978). They also inhabit some islands off the eastern coast (e.g. Mackay 1959).
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Note: Update to taxonomy 2001: Internation Comission for Zoological Nomeclature ruled that the revised names mentioned here should be abandoned.
 At present three subspecies are recognised; V.panoptes panoptes inhabits the extreme north of eastern Western Australia and the Northern Territory, the islands of the Torres Straits and probably many other islands...
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Differences between this goanna and V.scalaris have been outlined above. Bohme (1988) considered V.similis to be "probably a valid species" on the basis of its hemipenal morphology. Unfortunately he makes no reference to V.scalaris.
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The first two articles in this occasional series on the monitor lizards of Asia discussed two rare and enigmatic animals found only in rainforests and mangrove swamps. Virtually nothing is known of their biology and they are only rarely seen in captivity, at least on this side of the Atlantic (Bennett 1993, 1995). |
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Storr's goanna is another spiny-tailed dwarf species found in inland areas of northern Australia. V.storri ocreatus occurs in Western Australia and Northern Territory, V.storri storri is known only from Queensland. The species can be distinguished from V.acanthurus by its smaller size, fewer rows of scales around the belly and their duller pattern.
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 Mertens' goanna is perhaps the most amphibious member of the monitor lizard family. It is found in northern Australia, from Western Australia east to western Queensland. According to Schmida (1985) they are common on waterways throughout northern Australia.
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 Mitchell's monitor is a small arboreal goanna found along the waterways of northern Western Australia and Northern Territory. Its long compressed tail led Mertens (1958) to place the species in the subgenus Varanus along with other large Australian goannas, but more recent studies suggest that this is a dwarf monitor of the Odatria subgenus...
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 The twilight goanna is another long-tailed rock-dwelling species. It has a much larger distribution than Glauert's goanna. inhabiting the far north of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland but is absent from the Cape York Peninsula. They also inhabit a number of islands off the northern coast.
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 Although captive breeding of monitor lizards has been revolutionised over the last ten years, the proportion of captive bred animals in the trade is still miniscule. This is because captive breeding has tended to concentrate on Australian species, with an emphasis on the dwarf (Odatria) species.
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 The perentie is the king of the Australian goannas. It is the largest lizard on the continent and one of the most beautiful animals in the world. It was once thought to be an uncommon creature but in recent years the number of sightings has greatly increased and the known range of the species has expanded.
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