White-throated monitor

The white-throated monitor (Varanus albigularis albigularis) is a lizard found in southern Africa. They are usually gray-brown with yellowish or white markings, and can reach up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) in length. They are found in Southern Africa, northwards to Angola, Zambia, and Mozambique.

White-throated monitor lizard
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Varanidae
Genus: Varanus
Species:
V. albigularis
Subspecies:
V. a. albigularis
Trinomial name
Varanus albigularis albigularis
Daudin, 1802[1]

Taxonomy

First described by François Marie Daudin in 1802,[1] these lizards were previously classed as a subspecies of Varanus exanthematicus, but have since been declared a distinct species based upon differences in hemipenal morphology.[2] The generic name Varanus is derived from the Arabic word waral ورل, which is translated to English as "monitor". Their specific name comes from a compound of two Latin words: albus meaning "white" and gula meaning "throat".

Diet

Varanus albigularis albigularis are generalists, feeding opportunistically on a broad variety of prey in the wild. Tortoises make up a significant part of their diet, and are swallowed whole due to the hard shell. Otherwise, they consume very little vertebrate prey, eating primarily invertebrates, especially millipedes, beetles, molluscs and orthopterans. Millipedes for example form nearly a quarter of their diet; the monitors are apparently resistant to its poisonous secretions. Although not averse to occasionally scavenging the corpses of vertebrate prey, even those as large as vervet monkeys, such prey seems usually too fast to catch for these monitors. This contrasts with what is often a diet of mostly vertebrates in captivity, such as rodents or poultry.[3]

Predation
Martial eagle feeding on a white-throated monitor.

It is hunted by birds of prey such as eagles.

Captivity

This subspecies is kept as a pet.

  • Monitor lizard in Kalahari, North Cape, South Africa
  • Cape banded white-throated monitor at a pet store in Largo, Florida

References
  1. Daudin, F. M. (1802). Histoire Naturelle, génerale et particulièredes reptiles, ouvrage faisant suite, a l'histoiure naturelle, générale et particulière composée par LECLERC DE BUFFON, et redigée par C. S. SONNINI, vol. 3. F. Dufart, Paris.
  2. Bohme, W. (1991). New finding on the hemipenal morphology of monitor lizards and their systematic implications. Mertensiella, 2, 42-49.
  3. Dalhuijsen, Kim (10 December 2013). "A Comparative Analysis of the Diets of Varanus albigularis and Varanus niloticus in South Africa". African Zoology. 49 (1): 84–93.


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