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Second biggest lizard in the world
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Second biggest lizard in the world
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Wow, he's a nice size! Remember to always treat these fellas with great respect - they are like miniature crocodiles, and have little fear of humans. They will bite with great ferocity and their claws are fearsome. Give them plenty of room, and if you see them raising themselves on their legs and "huffing", watch out! - that's a sign of aggression in reptiles, and he's warning you to back off, or he'll attack! Good picture!
hes the third sorry to say iam watching steve right now
...how big do these fellas get???...i mean, this guy looks quite close to 2 meters,...do they get even bigger???.... and if they do, what would be the approximate age of such a creature.....help anyone...???...........
Davo, they will grow to well over 2 metres. The brother and I discovered a Sand Monitor, that was easily 2.3 metres, in our orchard in a country town in the SE of Western Australia. He was unafraid of us, and acted like he owned the orchard.
The Perenti is relatively shy, and less common, the Sand Monitor (also known as Gould Goanna or Racehorse Goanna) is much more common. In the Goldfields of W.A. - we used to have Sand Monitors regularly prowl around the campsite, looking for food.
If you feed them, they will become less shy very quickly, and even aggressive. They will eat virtually any type of food scraps, they are real scavengers. However, they prefer meaty scraps. They normally eat insects, grasshoppers, worms, centipedes, scorpions, small birds (they either rush the birds and grab them, or knock them down with a sideways swish of their tail), other lizards and snakes. The smaller they are, the more "skittish" they are - the bigger ones are quite fearless. Smaller lizards have to fear numerous predators, but larger lizards have virtually no predators.
They have very powerful muscles and can pick up speed very fast and outrun dogs easily.
If chased, they usually run up trees for escape. It's surprising how well they can climb trees.
I have never found out how long these lizards live for, but I wouldn't be surprised if they live for 15-20 yrs.
Good site here for accurate info - http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/goannas-monitor-lizards.html