Monitoring Monitors Part One

G'day mate! Check me out doing a Steve Erwin of Mickey, our female Nile monitor lizard!!!

A couple of weeks back, we had a big weighing, measuring and nail clipping session with the monitor lizards kept in the savannah section. Here's a few snap shots of how we got on...

Jamieson and Conor get to grips with measuring Henry, the big male Savannah monitor, while all he can think about is what or who his next meal is going to be....Conor dodges Henry's mouth!

Jamieson, aided by beautiful assistant, clipping Mickey's nails, before we chuck he in a plastic bin, that sits on top of a set of electronic scales. That is how you weigh an animal that wants to eat you!!

(above, Conor looking like a verry happy chappy, ready to go with his rod, line and... day-old chick)

The following week, our project was an enrichment/exercise one, and went like this... (sorry bout sideways pics, computer is not behaving)

Attatch a dead chick on the end of a fishing line...

...dangle chick above hungry monitor lizard in enclosure...

... lizard (in this case, Eric, our male Nile monitor) chases chick wildly as you move it all around the enclosure...
...success! Lizard catches chick, and wrestles it as you reel in the line... The clip gives and Eric is free to eat his meal after all the excitement. Fishing for monitors was so much fun and the visitors loved it! It was great to be able to do something enriching for the animals and a good way of keeping them healthy and providing some naturalistic entertainment for a creature often neglected in this area of work.

Next are some pictures of other monitor lizards kept at the zoo...


Doc, the breeding male komodo dragon (there's also a female, "T.W." and their 4 babies) Komodo dragons are the worlds heaviest lizard and an endangered species. They kill their prey by means of the virulent bacteria in their mouths that cause leathal infections when transmitted via their saliva into the wound when they bite their prey, which in the wild consists of carrion, mammals as large as goats or as small as mice, birds, eggs, reptiles including smaller komodo dragons and 10% of their meals are humans!!! The komodos here are reasonably friendly though, and some of you may remember my excited post after I was allowed to have a cuddle with T.W.

A close up of Doc

A sideways shot of one of the 7 crocodile monitors. I was walking to the office to work and saw him, as if splayyered up against the fence, basking in the only sun spot at that time in the morning. He looked so funny!! The croc monitors were bred here and hand reared so are relatively tame. I was recently allowed in with the three that live outdoors to help hand feed them. So cool!! After they feed they like to wash their faces, jumping in the water pool and loving being hosed down when they have finished their food. Crocodile monitors are the worlds longest lizard and have incredibly long, whip like tails that they use for defense. They are avid climbers and despite their size, they are relatively light, weighing in at around 10-15lbs. The males are much larger than the females though.