Know Your Lizards

OK, there is some confusion in the identification of my two
pet lizards, Max and Spaz. Hopefully, this post will clear up the confusion.

Maximilion (Max) is a Savanna Monitor (Varanua exanthematicus) . He hails from the semi-arid regions (savannas) of Africa. They can be found in Central and Western Africa. They like open forests and rocky areas. They also like the climate to be hot and somewhat dry. Max is a ground lizard, but he can climb. In the wild baby monitors usually hang out in the trees, and adults hang out closer to the ground. They can get to be 5 feet long.

Savanna Monitors, like all monitor lizards, have a forked tongue like a snake. They use their forked tongue exactly like snakes do, to smell the ground and air by tasting it. They are rather agile lizards, capable of bursts of speed on land. Their tail has a ridge running down it, and in the water they use their tail to swim with. Being from a semi-arid region, savanna monitors are not true swimming lizards (like the nile monitor or the alligator), but they can swim if they want to. They have powerful jaws and small teeth. A few species of monitors eat fruit, but most are carnivores. Max eats fried eggs, mice, and boiled chicken guts. Wild savanna monitors eat mostly snails, frogs, other lizards, bird eggs, and whatever else they can find.

Unlike other lizards, monitor lizards do not drop their tails. Once a monitor looses its tail, it does not grow back. This is what a Savanna Monitor looks like. This is not Max, this lizard is a little too fat. Max is not overfed. This one is.

Spaz is a Green Iguana (Iguana iguana). He hails from the rain forests of Central and South America. Spaz likes the climate to be hot and wet. He is probably happier in his outside cage than Max is. Green Iguanas can be found anywhere in Central and South America that has a jungle.

Iguanas are tree lizards, more comfortable off the ground than on the ground. They are also excellent swimmers, which is good because there is water everywhere in the rain forest. They escape from enemies by either climbing or dropping from trees into water then swimming away. They can also whip you with their tail (it hurts) or bite you (that hurts more).

Iguana tongues are not forked. They are rounded (like the tongues of most lizards) but unlike insect eating lizards iguanas can not extend their tongues very far. They do not have to, as iguanas eat fruit and other vegetative growth. Any insects they do eat are on or in the fruit they eat. Like monitor lizards, they do taste things to smell them.

Baby iguanas are bright green, but as they get older they loose their bright color. Adult green iguanas can range from a dull green to a dull yellow. Adult male iguanas have large spines along their back, but these spines are not sharp. They are flexible and useless for defense. Females have back spikes too, but they are much smaller.

It is common to see wild green iguanas in South Florida. These non-native lizards are the result of pets that either escape or are let loose. The climate in South FL is similar enough to a rain forest that the iguanas are happy here. It does get colder in the winter than it does in a real rain forest, but not cold enough to kill off the wild iguanas. They live and breed just like they could in Costa Rica.

It is less common to see wild monitor lizards in South Florida. I would think that there is a colony of them somewhere, but I have not seen any. Savanna Monitors would do just fine in South Florida, even if it is a bit wetter than it is in the plains of Africa. Nile Monitors (also from Africa)
would do very well in South Florida, they like to swim. The many canals here would suit them just fine.

For my mext lizard pet, I want either a Chinese Water Dragon (kind of looks like an iguana, but not really ) or a Tegu (South-American ground lizard with a forked tongue and snake-like skin).