Appearance
"Varanus albigularis" is on average the most massive lizard in Africa, as adult males average about 6 to 8 kg and females weigh from 3.2 to 5 kg. Large mature males can attain weights of 15 to 17 kg, which would make it slightly smaller than the Nile monitor by maximum size. It is the second longest African lizard after the Nile monitor. Mature specimens typically measure 0.85 to 1.5 meters. The head and neck are the same length, and are distinct from each other. The bulbous, convex snout gives an angular, box-like appearance. The forked tongue is pink or bluish, and the body scales are usually a mottled gray-brown with yellowish or white markings. Exceptionally large specimens reach 2 meters in total length, with its tail and body being of equal size.Habitat
"V. albigularis" is found in Central Africa, Southern Africa, East Africa and the African Great Lakes region, and the Horn of Africa. "V. albigularis" is found in a variety of arid habitats, including steppes, grasslands and savanna, and may frequent rock "kopje" formations that dot the landscape. They are generally absent from desert interiors, rainforests and thick scrub forests.Food
"V. albigularis" are generalists, feeding opportunistically on a broad variety of prey in the wild, such as other lizards, amphibians, birds, snakes, tortoises, eggs and small mammals. Tortoises make up a significant part of their diet, and are swallowed whole due to the hard shell. Otherwise, this species consumes very little vertebrate prey, eating primarily invertebrates, especially millipedes, beetles, molluscs, orthopterans and scorpions. Millipedes for example form nearly a quarter of their diet; the monitors are apparently resistant to its poisonous secretions. They are not averse to occasionally scavenging the corpses of vertebrate prey, even those as large as vervet monkeys, which are sometimes torn to pieces by "death rolling" like a crocodilian prior to consumption. Live vertebrate prey other than tortoises are usually too fast to catch for these monitors, and therefore form very little of their diet. This contrasts with what is often a diet of mostly vertebrates in captivity, such as rodents, poultry or fish.Cultural
People living with the HIV/AIDS virus in Yumbe District of Uganda have been reported injecting themselves with the blood of rock monitors, which they believe to be a cure for the virus. Many are reportedly discontinuing anti-retroviral therapy to pursue this anecdotal treatment.As a result, "V. albigularis" is reported to have become an expensive item in the Ugandan black market, selling for more than 175 US$ each.
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