Butaan jump from incredible heights, land on the ground
with a huge crash and walk away uninjured. Jumps to the ground from 30m were
recorded by Auffenberg and our spool and line tracking suggests lizards
regularly jump from heights of 4-15m when they are unmolested. The amazing
jumping power of the butaan is undocumented in any other monitors lizard and
may be one more unique aspects of the Putras Biawak group.
The best way to monitor individual butaan would be to extract DNA from fresh feces found on the forest floor. We can find the feces but we cannot afford the analysis!
Butaan jump from incredible heights, land on the ground
with a huge crash and walk away uninjured. Jumps to the ground from 30m were
recorded by Auffenberg and our spool and line tracking suggests lizards
regularly jump from heights of 4-15m when they are unmolested. The amazing
jumping power of the butaan is undocumented in any other monitors lizard and
may be one more unique aspects of the Putras Biawak group.
