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REPTILIA:
SQUAMATA: VARANIDAE: Varanus
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Varanus teriae Sprackland,
1991
Canopy monitor
Photo & text by Dr. Robert Sprackland.
This animal was hatched and raised at Australia Zoo.
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Range:
Known only from a small forested region of the Cape York
Peninsula, Queensland, Australia.
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Diagnosis:
An elongate, round-tailed monitor with enlarged supraocular
scales, a black body and a series of gray-blue dorsal chevrons.
The tongue is pink.
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Description:
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Natural History:
This is an arboreal monitor rarely found near or on the ground
in nature. They seek refuge in hollow trees, and forage actively
for food by day. The diet is made largely of large insects, but
may include other small invertebrates, smaller lizards, frogs,
and small eggs.
This is a sleek, wary, fast lizard
rarely to be encountered in the open.
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Reproduction:
Like all monitors, an egg-layer. The only reproductive data come
from Australia Zoo, where curator Kelsey Engel reports
that three young were successfully hatched and reared to
adulthood.
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Taxonomy & Relationships:
Canopy monitors are closely related to the green and black tree
monitors of New Guinea. That group is in turn allied with the
bulkier mangrove monitors in the subgenus Euprepiosaurus.
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Variation:
No significant variation is known.
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Additional Comments:
This species is still very poorly known. There are two wild
caught and three captive produced specimens at Australia Zoo,
and about a half-dozen preserved animals at the Queensland
Museum.
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Type Specimen:
QM, from Coen, Queensland.
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Literature:
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