Indian Land Monitor (Varanus Bengalensis Bengalensis)

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Sinhalese: Thalagoya

Tamil: Udumbu

Description: This monitor has a general color of brownish-grey with some dark speckling. They have long, forked tongues, and grow to an average overall length of 138 cm.

Distribution: Found throughout the lowlands and lower hills, preferring the dry zone.

Habits: These monitors are normally solitary and diurnal, spending the night in a burrow. They are good tree climbers, and if per sued can drop to the ground from a height of about 14 meters. They spend much of the day digging and foraging for the snails, small vertebrates, crabs, frogs, eggs and young rodents on which they feed; they also scavenge. When the need arises they can swim, but they do not take to water as readily as the Water Monitor. These lizards are also able to raise their fore parts off the ground and stand on their hind legs and tail to fight and obtain a better view. As with the Water Monitor, their tail is a powerful weapon of defense.

Breeding: The female lays between 6 and 30 oval, soft-shelled eggs in a hole in the ground or an old dead log.

Note: These Lizards are sometimes erroneously referred to as “Iguanas” but that specie does not exist in Sri Lanka.

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