
When bored, they even like to chase the prey, since it provides them with a sense of excitement. The monitor eats various animals, ranging from critters, toads, and rodents, to even smaller versions of its own kind, such as the spiny-tailed goannas. While using its hind legs to look out for predators, this technique can also be useful while trying to spot its prey. Additionally, these monitors also have another advantage to their “dance-like” behavior- they can move very fast, being able to reach 100 yards/meter. If the monitor wants to get a glimpse of another animal approaching, it can simply stand on its hind legs and use its tail in a tripod-like fashion for balance, making it seem ready to do a ballroom dance.

However, that is not all this fascinating “whip” can do. When feeling threatened, the animal can use its long tail as a whip to stray off predators. These young monitors immediately appear brilliantly colored and more patterned than the adults.Īfter 175 to 185 days incubating at roughly 85 degress Fahrenheit, a perfect little clone of the adults emerges, ready to face the world.īesides the powerful legs of the Argus monitor, it also has another defensive weapon. When finding the perfect female, the male mates with her to produce ten to twelve inch long baby monitors. Further yet, the males are also said to have larger front legs, using them when battling another male for a female monitor. Being one of the larger monitors, it uses its strong legs to move around and when it gets bored, it easily has no trouble using its claws to dig into the ground or to climb a low tree branch. Unlike most reptiles, the Argus monitor is not your ordinary terrestrial lizard. This map shows a population abundance of the Argus monitor lizard at the tip of Australia. On the other hand, in New Guinea, the only known specie is Varanus panoptes horni. There are two known species found in Australia: the Varanus panoptes rubidus and the Varanus panoptes panoptes. This monitor normally likes to find its home in the Australian outback or parts of the island of New Guinea.

Scientifically, we know the animal by Varanus panoptes. The Argus monitor is commonly referred to as a goanna or a “yellow-spotted” monitor, since its legs are yellow and its body appears a darker brown-like color. Females can grow up to three feet, but the males appear more dominant, reaching five to six feet in length.

Even though we usually think of a monitor being associated with a computer, in the depths of the Australia, this “monitor” is actually the name of a ancestor to the Komodo dragon: an Argus monitor.
