Rock Monitor

Varanus albigularis

Reptile

Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about rock monitors. Be sure to subscribe for new episodes. Thank you to Joey Martorella for today’s request. Rock monitors are also known as white-throated monitors and black-throated monitors, and they come with handful of subspecies. The different sub-species can have separate color morphs, and they’re found throughout parts of southern, eastern, and central Africa. If that’s not confusing enough, rock monitors and savannah monitors were actually classified as the same species until 1989, so it’s not uncommon to see rock monitors cited in older publications as “southern savannah monitors”, but savannah monitors are a totally different species at this point.

Rock monitors are some of the biggest lizards living on the African continent. They average anywhere from three to five feet (1 - 1.5 meters) in length with males appearing slightly larger than females. Of course, about 50% of their length can be attributed to their long, whiplike tails. A rock monitor’s tail is extremely important because it helps to keep an individual alive during the driest parts of the year when prey is limited.

Rock monitors gorge themselves on snails, millipedes, rodents if they can catch them, and even baby tortoises. They’ll eat as much as they can for an entire four months, gaining a lot of weight in the process. The fat they develop is stored largely in their tails so that during the eight months of famine during the drier parts of the year, the rock monitors can still get by. During this time, they may lose close to 50% of their body weight, but they’ll put it all back on when the wet season returns.

It’s actually during the dry season that rock monitors will seek out a mate. Males will chase rivals off their turf and seek out females usually by scent. They’ll climb a tree to mate and part ways afterwards. A female rock monitor will dig a burrow for her eggs or she may even hijack a section of a termite mound to lay them. This is a great strategy, because when the babies hatch, they’re met with a banquette. Rock monitor babies hatch at the start of the wet season so that they have the best chance for survival, though the entire nest may not make it as they can be raided by mongooses.

After hatching, and throughout their lives, rock monitors may fall victim to eagles, honey badgers, and leopards, though rock monitors are often some of the largest carnivores in their habitats. A rock monitor’s habitat may be desert scrub, grassland, savannah, and even woodland just depending on their location.

These lizards use trees as a means to escape predators, though they may also release their bowels to ward off an attacker, too. I dunno about you, but if I had a lizard simultaneously excrete its wastes all over me, I would probably let go. Remember, reptiles always poop and pee at the same time. It’s the way they’re designed! Just like birds! Anyway- Trees may also serve as a nice spot to chill during the hottest parts of the day or to snooze at night. Rock monitors may live to be older than a decade, and in captivity they may live even longer.

For more facts on rock monitors, check out the links in the description. Be sure to give a thumbs up, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.