Card #060 · Reptiles
Nile monitor
Varanus niloticus
Common LC · Least Concern
Field notes
- Classification
- Order Squamata · Family Varanidae
- Range
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Size
- 120–220 cm (4–7 ft)
- Weight
- 5.9–15 kg (13–33 lb)
- Lifespan
- ~10–15 yrs
- Diet
- Fish, eggs, carrion
Most Notable
Africa's longest lizard, reaching 2.4 m. Its teeth tell its life story: sharp and pointed in juveniles taking insects, they wear to blunt pegs in adults built for cracking snails and shells.
It raids crocodile nests, digging out and eating the eggs of an animal that could swallow it whole. A monitor cornered away from water will stand and fight, and one naturalist judged it a more dangerous adversary than a crocodile of the same size.
It eats almost anything: fish, frogs, small reptiles, birds, rodents, eggs, invertebrates and carrion, which is part of why it thrives wherever there is water.
The West African population split from the rest about 7.7 million years ago, an older divergence than the one between humans and chimpanzees.
Never deliberately released as a predator, it has nonetheless established an invasive population in south Florida, centred on Cape Coral.
Range: Rivers, lakes and wetlands across sub-Saharan Africa.