The Dumeril’s Monitor is a species of monitor lizard that is native to parts of South-East Asia. They are a large species that can grow to around 4ft in length.
This monitor is named after the French Herpetologist Andre Marie Constant Dumeril. The Dumeril’s Boa is also named after the same Herpetologist.
Dumeril’s Monitor Taxonomy
The Dumeril’s Monitor belongs to the Varanidae family of lizards. This family contains only one genus of living lizards. There are two extinct genera associated with this family, Ovoo and Saniwa.
The remaining genus, and the genus that the Dumeril’s Monitor belongs to is called Varanus. This is essentially the genus of Monitor Lizards, which are native to Africa, Asia and Oceania.
This is a large genus of lizard that contains over 60 different species including some of the largest lizards in the world such as the Komodo Dragon and Nile Monitor.
The genus name, Varanus is derived from the Arabac word ‘waral’ which simply translates into Monitor.
The scientific name for the Dumeril’s Monitor is Varanus dumerilii. No sub-species are currently recognised but some literature identifies two sub-species, Varanus dumerilii dumerilii and Varanus dumerilii heteropholis.
Dumeril’s Monitor Description
The Dumeril’s Monitor is a large species of monitor lizard that can geow to over 4ft in length. This length includes the tail which makes up around half the lizards length.
The background color of this lizard is dark brown or black while they have yellow markings along their back. Each individual is unique and these markings can be easily identified or very feint.
The marking often come in the form of bands that run horizontally across the monitors back. Sometimes small markings are present all over the lizards back which appear as yellow spotting.
The patterning on a juvenile is usually very distinct. The background color is typically black while the yellow bands are very bright and form good contrast against the background color of the lizard.
Natural Habitat and Distribution
The Dumeril’s Monitor can be found throughout a large portion of South-East Asia. They can be found on the mainland in parts of Thailand and Malaysia.
It can also be found on many of the Malaysian and Indonesian island such as Borneo, Sumatra and Riau. This lizard can also be found on many of the smaller islands in the region.
It shares some of its geographical range with the Sumatran Short Tailed Python, the Asian Water Monitor and the Borneo Short Tailed Python.
This lizard likes to live amongst dense foliage where the humidity is quite high. For this reason, they are commonly found in places such as evergreen forests and mangrove swamps.
While the Dumeril’s Monitors habitat consists of mangrove swamps, it is not believed that they share this habitat with the Mangrove Monitor as the Mangrove Monitor is found further south.
Diet
In the wild, the Dumeril’s Monitor will feed on a variety of different prey. However, these monitors have a preference to eating crabs and these crabs make up the bulk of their diet.
As well as crabs, these monitors will feed on other types of ocean wildlife including shellfish, fish and a variety of different mollusc species.
They will also eat things like frogs and small mammals when the opportunity arises. In captivity, small rodents, fish, crabs and snails make up the bulk of their diet.
Dumeril’s Monitor As Pets
The Dumeril’s Monitor is becoming increasingly popular in the pet trade. This is largely due to their more docile nature than many other species of large monitor lizard.
However, the problem with these lizards in captivity is that many of them are still collected from the wild. This is starting to change as more people have been successful at breeding them.
These lizards should be left to people with a high level of knowledge and experience in keeping large monitors as not as much information is available on them yet. They also need a lot of space and access to water.