Nile Monitor escapes

A few years ago, I came across a man wanting to give away a small Nile Monitor. This is a smaller version of the Komodo dragon and it lives in Africa.  The fact that the reptile was free made me quick to accept his offer.  Up until then, I had never even seen one in person.  The lizard was about two feel long and weighted about 5 pounds. I was feeding it turkey from the store, but they will eat just about anything dead or alive.

It wasn’t long before I realized I was in over my head. These lizards will leave a nasty bite, but they also harbor diseases like salmonella. One scratch from its talons would have left me with a horrible infection.   It was a little creepy sleeping with this dragon-like creature in my room, so I decided an outdoor pen would have to be constructed.  I really went all out on the cage. It included a swimming pool, sleeping box, food dish, branches to climb on, and a big rock for basking in the sun. I placed the Monitor in the cage and was confident it would enjoy the new home.  I stood back to admire my work and general awesomeness. It was only later I realize that I had mad a big mistake.  During construction, I cut a small hole in the wire to throw food through.  I had intended to cover this hole with something that I could remove daily. Needless to say the lizard found the whole and escaped.

 

I figured the monitor would die, so I was surprised to see it a few months later in my yard.  My first attempt to recapture the lizard was a complete failure. I thought I would run the lizard down on foot and capture it with my bare hands. That didn’t happen, because the monitor took off up a tree like a squirrel chasing peanut butter. There is no question that Nile monitors are excellent tree climbers.  I began to wonder what it had been eating. Perhaps it had been eating my neighbor’s cats.  I can only guess, but due to the size of the lizard I knew it had found something. The Nile was 4 feet long now and looked to weigh 30 pounds or more.  I never saw the lizard again. I assumed that it would die during the winter, because it is a native species of Africa and can not handle this climate. I still wonder if it survived that first winter. Nature finds a way for the sort of things. I hope that it’s not lingering in some sewer pipe covered in chemicals, which will cause it to transform into a Godzilla type creature.  That would not be good for me.

Thanks for reading about my Nile Monitor story.

Michael Walker