Pacific monitor
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Pacific monitor ( Varanus indicus ) |
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| Varanus indicus | ||||||||||||
| ( Daudin , 1802) |
The Pacific monitor ( Varanus indicus ) is a representative of the monitor lizards ( Varanus ) from the order of the squamata. It lives in New Guinea and Northern Australia and is over a meter long.
features
The Pacific monitor is a medium-sized, generalist (not specialized) built monitor with no sexual dimorphism. Adults weigh a maximum of 1.9 kilograms and are a maximum of 1.25 meters long. The dorsal drawing consists of yellowish or whitish points, the diameter of which is usually less than five scales. It contrasts on a brownish-blackish base color. Furthermore, a light, not drawn throat, a dark tongue and a side-squeezed oar tail are typical.
The Pacific monitors of the southern Mariana Islands and from Angaur on Palau are dark gray, olive green or black with white to orange dorsal-lateral spots from the snout to the middle of the tail.
Occurrence
The Pacific monitor is widespread. He inhabits Cape York , the coastal areas of New Guinea , part of the Marshall Islands , the Moluccas , Timor , part of the Mariana Islands, part of the Solomon Islands , the coast of Arnhem Land and the islands of the Torres Strait. It prefers mangroves as a habitat, but it occurs in all kinds of forests.
Way of life
It is not completely clear whether these animals live amphibiously or terrestrially. However, in the Solomon Islands and Guam, these monitor lizards were mostly observed on dry soils far away from water. On the other hand, they have already been seen swimming in the sea and often flee into the water. Apparently they can also climb and run well. They are diurnal and have their activity peak in the morning. Captive animals sleep on trees at night.
Your diet is opportunistic; in addition to many invertebrates and vertebrates, they also eat eggs.
The males are apparently sexually mature from a head body length of 32 centimeters. Most pregnant females have a head body length of more than 27.5 centimeters. A clutch contains about ten eggs, which are 58 × 28 millimeters in size. The hatchlings are about 25 centimeters long.
history
This monitor lizard was first described by François-Marie Daudin in 1802 . Lately the bandy monitor was redefined with a neotype, which from now on is the holotype . This juvenile specimen from the Moluccas is in the research institute and museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn .
Web links
- Varanus indicus in The Reptile Database
- Varanus indicus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: Bennett, D. & Sweet, SS, 2009. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
swell
- Gil Dryden & Thomas Ziegler: Varanus indicus . In: Eric Pianka & Dennis King: Varanoid Lizards of the World . Indiana university Press, published 2004; Pp. 184-188. ISBN 0-253-34366-6
- Manfred Rogner: Lizards 2 . Eugen Ulmer Verlag, published 1994. ISBN 3-8001-7253-4