Species profile
About the nile monitor
The Nile monitor is the largest lizard in Africa, reaching two metres including a long laterally flattened tail that drives it through water. It is dark olive with rows of bright yellow spots and rosettes, and it is as at home swimming and diving as it is climbing a riverside tree.
It is a formidable generalist predator and one of the principal predators of crocodile eggs, digging out nests while the female is distracted. Any Tanzanian river, lake or floodplain holds them, and the Rufiji and Great Ruaha are excellent places to watch one hunting the shallows.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
Diurnal. Forages along water margins, swims and dives well, and can stay submerged for many minutes. Shelters in burrows and hollow trees.
Social life
Solitary and territorial; several may gather at a rich food source such as a crocodile nesting bank or a carcass.
What makes it remarkable
Special features
Nests laid inside living termite mounds, and a forked tongue used, like a snake’s, to track scent trails.
