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Water Monitor

Varanus salvator salvator

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6.4532, 80.6255

Field Notes

Description:

Large monitor lizard, dark blue-black in color with yellow pattern all over the body, but particularly dense on the tail. If my memory is correct, this one was somewhere about 1,5 m in length. This species shows a muscular body, with long, powerful, laterally compressed tails. The tongue is dark and split.

Habitat:

Arboreal lizard, living close to water. We observed it climbing trees on the banks of river, lazily; but our guide (and some literature) say they can be very quick when climbing and even leaping from branch to branch.

Notes:

Common Water Monitor or Asian Water Monitor is a large species of lizard, common to South-east Asia. The subspecies V. s. salvator is endemic to Sri Lanka.

Apologize for the poor quality of photos - as many from my collection, they are very old, taken in times before digital cameras, and were scanned later on.

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