A Monitor Lizard in the Philippines

Abstract

Until 1976 Gray's monitor lizard was known to science only by two museum specimens, neither of which gave any data more precise than ‘Luzon’. In 1975 the author discovered a third which identified an area on Luzon, and in 1976 he went to the Philippines and found this large monitor, which some scientists had thought might be extinct, widely distributed in forests in southern Luzon. But large areas of these forests have been and continue to be destroyed, and with them go the monitor's habitat. Also local people hunt it for meat. The author discusses the ecology and distribution of the monitor and urges that a new national park be created. © 1979, Fauna and Flora International. All rights reserved.