Water Monitor Lizard Varanus Salvator Research Articles

Homing: a case-study on the spatial memory of the Asian water monitor lizard Varanus salvator in the Kinabatangan floodplain

Homing: a case-study on the spatial memory of the Asian water monitor lizard Varanus salvator in the Kinabatangan floodplain

Gross Morphological Structure of Digestive System in Water Monitor Lizard Varanus salvator (Squamata: Varanidae)

Currently, the water monitor lizard (Varanus salvator) is recognized as an economic animal especially for the leather trade. Since the anatomical study of its digestive organs is essential for farming and feeding management, we conducted an anatomical study of the digestive organs of this species. This study aimed to describe the gross morphological structure of the digestive organ. This organ consisted of a slender tongue that was deeply bifid and retracted in a sheath, a short pharynx, a slender esophagus with a thick muscular walled tube a striated stomach that was largest in the curved part, a coiled small intestine without a caecum, a striated large intestine (the posterior part of which was connected to the coprodeal cloaca), a pyramidal liver with 3 lobes, a gallbladder embedded at the lower part of the middle liver lobe, and a yellowish pancreas. This study provided information about the gross morphological and internal surface structures of the digestive organs in V. salvator that could be used in the biological and veterinary sciences and other related studies.

The rediscovery of the Common Water Monitor Lizard Varanus salvator (Squamata: Varanidae) in northern Myanmar

On 09 June 2015, a Common Water Monitor Varanus salvator (Laurenti, 1768) was observed and photographed (Image 1) on the campus of Banmaw University, Banmaw (Bhamo), Kachin State, Myanmar (24018’15”N & 97015’52”E). Subsequently, a second individual was observed 140km to the west at Banmauk, Sagaing Division (24024’N & 95051’E). These two observations are the first records of Varanus salvator from Upper Myanmar since Anderson (1878). It would be interesting to conduct follow-up studies to determine whether this is indeed a relict northern population.