1. Order: Squamata

Family: Varanidae

 

Size:  up to 175 cm in length

Weight: up to 7.2 kg

 

Key Features: Young monitor lizards are more colourful than adults. Young have a series of dark crossbars on the neck, throat and back. The belly is white, banded with dark crossbars and are spotted with grey or yellow (particularly in the eastern part of the range). On the dorsal surface of young monitors, there are a series of yellow spots with dark transverse bars connecting them. Bengal monitors have external nostril openings (nares) that is slit-like and oriented near horizontal, and positions between the eye and the tip of the snout. The nares can be closed at will, especially to keep away debris or water. The scales of the skin are rougher in patches and on the sides, they have minute pits, especially well distributed in males.

 

Breeding: Females may be able to retain sperm, and females held in confinement have been able to lay fertile eggs. The main breeding season is June to September. Males, however, begin to show combat behaviour in April. Females dig a nest hole in level ground or a vertical bank and lay the eggs inside, filling it up and using their snouts to compact the soil. The females often dig false nests nearby and shovel soil around the area. A single clutch of about 20 eggs are laid. The eggs hatch in 168 to nearly as long as 254 days.  About 40 to 80% of the eggs may hatch.

 

Diet: normal prey consists of beetles, grubs, orthopterans, scorpions, snails, ants and other invertebrates. Large adults may ascend vertical tree trunks, where they sometimes stalk and capture roosting bats.

 

Habitat:  found both in dry semiarid desert habitats to moist forest as well as river valleys.

 

Habits: Bengal monitors are usually solitary and usually found on the ground, although the young are often seen on trees. Bengal monitors shelter in burrows they dig or crevices in rocks and buildings, whilst clouded monitors prefer tree hollows. They are not territorial, and may change their range seasonally in response to food availability.

 

Conservation Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

IUCN Red List. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/164579/0

 

Varanus bengalensis. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on July 11, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_monitor

 

Photo Courtesy

Dibyendu Ash, Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 Wikimedia Commons