Wednesday, October 7, 2009

How to contain an exotic animal at home? Varan. Part 1.

lizard
Varans belong to the family of lizards. Body length - 0,8-3 m. There are 30 species of these animals. They live in the Eastern Hemisphere. Predators.

They eat lizards, snakes, small mammals and rodents, arthropods, turtles, birds and bird eggs. Largest representative - Komodo dragon, up to 3 m in length, lives on the island of Komodo (Indonesia).

Emerald Island Indonesia - Komodo
Emerald Island Indonesia - Komodo

A little smaller than the size of his South Asian striped giant lizard - 2,8 m, and dwelling in Australia, a giant monitor lizard - 2,5 m. Camaya big lizard fauna of Central Asia - gray monitor lizard, length up to 1.6 m. The length of the smallest, the Australian short-tailed monitor lizard -- to 20 cm are listed as endangered.
Meat giant lizards are edible, taste like chicken, so in some countries people are mercilessly destroy them for their tasty meat, and also because of the valuable skin that goes to the production of various craft and haberdashery.

Komodo dragon - not on whether the word "chest"?
Komodo dragon

By the nature of habitat, these animals are divided into terrestrial, semi-aquatic and arboreal. But the division is - conditionally, because All of them to climb trees and swim and dive readily, if necessary.

Tinted lizards varied, but not too bright. Tree lizards are often painted in green, which allows them to camouflage in the foliage of trees. They live in deep burrows, snatches of their own, or occupy the burrows of rodents, which then expand to fit your needs. The length of the hole reaches the monitor lizard 2-2,5 m.

Lizards have a lean, muscular body with well-developed five-fingered limbs and long fingers with large curved claws. Powerful long neck crowns more or less elongated head. The tail is strongly compressed laterally.
The body is covered with round or oval scales. Numerous polygonal plates cover the head from above. Eye hole is always open.

Lizards love to swim and dive
Lizards love to swim and dive
Long, deeply forked at the end and extremely agile, language, constantly sticking out of his mouth, serves as monitor lizards, as the organ of smell and touch, "groping" surroundings, smells. During hunting lizards make great transitions for several kilometers in search of food. Very fast run, chasing prey, as well as fleeing from persecution.

Traveling in search of food, many lizards from time to time vertically raise the front part of the body, relying on widely spaced hind legs and tail to vysmatrivanii prey or danger.

I look in the blue of the lake ...
varan resting
With the approach of a powerful enemy might be hiding in flight, but often throw themselves boldly on the offensive. This greatly inflate the body, hissing and beating its tail on the ground, trying to scare the enemy.
Hard tail serves as a powerful weapon for defense and attack these animals, which they knocked down the victim or the opponent to the ground, and then cause him terrible, smashing blows.
Teeth were giant lizards are arranged so that when they are inflicting wounds tearing the body of the enemy, inflicting painful wounds. In addition to mechanical damage, they can also put on a dangerous wound infection, because often they are feeding the corpses of dead animals.

Overwhelming number of giant lizards - active predators and beautiful, cautious hunters creeping quietly to the victim and grabbed her and then suddenly in the final dash. Their prey lizards killed vigorous shaking, lifting his head up, and then swallowed, with a long neck like a snake twists, encouraging the rapid passage of food. If the victim is very great, monitors tear my teeth suitable for swallowing the pieces, keeping production forelimbs.

Nevertheless, despite their carnivorous, some lizards diversify your diet fruits and seeds of plants. Thus, fruits and fruit trees fed inhabits the Philippine Islands a large tree Gray's monitor lizard.
Arboreal South Asian arboreal monitor lizard eats ants, capturing insects with a long sticky tongue.

Reproduction
Lizards become sexually mature by 3-4-th year of life.
In the mating season the males fight fiercely with each other, causing each other for a long time does not heal deep wounds.
All lizards - egg-laying. The number of eggs in a batch of different species varies from 7 to 35 units, they are protected pergament looking soft shell.

And here I am! Hello!
birth komodo
The quantity of eggs of the largest - Komodo dragon - perhaps up to 10 cm in length and weighing up to 200 g. In the small species of giant lizards eggs are no longer than 1,5-2 cm Females lay them in the loose soil, filling the old holes in holes in piles of plant residues, tree hollows, and even in the building termites and ant.
Duration of egg development in the tropics is very high - up to 10 months.


In the next article will discuss the types of giant lizards, which are most often kept in captivity.

Marina Dutta
http://animaldin.blogspot.com/

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