Land Monitor (juvenile) in tree nest, Bundula, Sri Lanka

I found it quite surprising to find this land monitor inside a tree hollow. Apparently particular sub species occasionally show this behavior.

comments (2)

Pducros

Eagle Owl

Beautiful detail against nice clear background - lovely photo. Do you know more about the behaviour (related to finding prey, mating, protection etc?) Posted 7 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  Thanks! From what I read on Wikipedia, the behavior differs per sub species, yet most land monitors spend the majority of their lives on the ground, for pretty much all their behavior: sleeping, foraging, mating. They are solitary and avoid most other species. Posted 7 years ago

The Bengal monitor (Indian monitor)

The Bengal monitor or common Indian monitor, is a monitor lizard found widely distributed over South Asia. This large lizard is mainly terrestrial, and grows to about 175 cm from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail. Young monitors may be more arboreal, but adults mainly hunt on the ground, preying mainly on arthropods, but also taking small terrestrial vertebrates, ground birds, eggs and fish. Although large monitors have few predators apart from humans who hunt them for meat, younger individuals.. more

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Similar species: Scaled Reptiles

Species identified by Ferdy Christant