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Bengal Monitor (Varanus bengalensis)

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Description

The Bengal monitor (Varanus bengalensis) or common Indian monitor, is a monitor lizard found widely distributed over the Indian Subcontinent, as well as parts of Southeast Asia and West Asia. This large lizard is mainly terrestrial, and grows to about 175 cm from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail. Young monitors may be more arboreal, but adults mainly hunt on the ground, preying mainly on arthropods, but also taking small terrestrial vertebrates, ground birds, eggs and fish. Although large monitors have few predators apart from humans who hunt them for meat, younger individuals are hunted by many predators. They do not possess any venom glands or delivery mechanisms but folk myths around India hold these lizards as venomous. The species ranges from Iran to Java, among the most widely distributed of varanid lizards. It is found in river valleys in eastern Iran, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Burma. The subspecies Varanus bengalensis nebulosus, the clouded monitor, occurs in southern Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, Java and the Sunda Islands. They have not been confirmed on Sumatra, and have been found to be absent from the Andaman Islands.
Image size
3259x1833px 2.33 MB
Make
NIKON CORPORATION
Model
NIKON D5200
Shutter Speed
1/250 second
Aperture
F/4.5
Focal Length
70 mm
ISO Speed
1400
Date Taken
Nov 10, 2015, 2:26:44 PM
Sensor Size
12mm
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Comments28
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J0N0S's avatar
I've seen these in Thailand a lot, especially Bangkok. It is a similar species (Varanus Salvator.) And I think this one in the picture is also Varanus Salvator.

You can check the wikipedia link to see the difference.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_wa…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_m…

Bengal Monitors are brownish and don't have yellow dots. But it's ok to make a mistake came in terms of identifying animals from a far distance.

Varanus Salvator can also be found in India too.