War Monitor

"War Monitor"

Basic Information

Anatomy

The War Monitor is a very large lizard with a powerful head and tail as long as its body. Inside the mouth are 60 serrated, backwards curving 3 inch teeth that are replaced often. Theses sharp teeth often cut the inside of its own mouth creating blood tinged, red saliva. The curved teeth hold the prey and prevent them from escaping the powerful jaws and voracious appetite. The mouth also contains its long, blue, deeply forked tongue. They have rugged, strong legs that help them with short bursts of fast speed and powerful digging. Their claws are long, black, and very sharp and are used catch prey, dig, fight, and climb trees when young. The skin is thick, rough, and protected by scales that have small bones, providing a natural suit of armor.
Additionally, inside of the War Monitors mouth are 2 venom glands that produce an unusual compound. This venom has been recently thought to prevent blood clotting, cause muscle paralysis, lower blood pressure, and induce hypothermia, causing shock and loss of consciousness in its prey.

Genetics and Reproduction

War Monitors usually mate in late spring to early summer and lay clutches of 20 eggs in the early fall. Males compete for mates by standing on their hind legs and balancing tale, while wrestling and pinning down their opponent. The winning lizard flicks his forked tongue at the female to smell information about her readiness. War monitors often form pair bonds and have been known to be monogamous. Females dig several nests and holes to distract and detour other monitors from eating the eggs. The eggs are laid in a nest and incubate for 7 to 8 months and hatch in the spring. Upon hatching, young lizards spend much of their time in trees, where they can find small prey items and are protected from larger adults that are too big to climb the trees.

Growth Rate & Stages

They grow quickly the first few years and then slow down upon reaching maturity. They are considered mature at 8 to 9 years old and mate throughout the remainder of their lives.

Ecology and Habitats

The War Monitor is easily adaptable to many environments. It seems to favor hot dry lands, warm tropical forests, and grasslands. Requiring heat energy from the sun, it is mostly active during the day with occasional nocturnal actions. Generally a solitary creature, it has been known to form pair bonds with mates and come together with others to feed.
In the wild they dig large burrows with its strong legs and sharp claws. Sleeping in theses burrows allows it to conserve heat and reduce basking time in the sun during the morning hours. The lizard usually hunt in the afternoon but rests in the shade when it’s too hot out.

Dietary Needs and Habits

The War Monitor is a carnivore with a voracious appetite, known to eat up to 80% of its body weight in one meal if left to its own devices. They are ambush hunters but will also eat carrion and even corpses. When attacking prey, it will run at high speed for the underside of the prey’s throat doing great damage with its sharp teeth or swallowing smaller prey whole. After a large meal the lizard usually needs to lay in the sun to aide in its digestion. Although they have a large appetite, they also have a slow metabolism that allows them to live on much fewer meals. One large meal a month is usually enough to sustain them.
They have a very varied diet of mostly meets and are known to eat anything that can fit in their mouths. This includes juvenile monitors, other reptiles, hogs, deer, horses, all birds, eggs, fish, and primates. When several monitors are eating together a hierarchy is quickly established with the largest lizards eating first.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Juvenile War Monitors may group up for protection or hunt in small packs. If caught early enough, they can be trained to work in small teams with a common purpose under simple, singular commands. Older monitors are usually solitary creatures that do not associate with one another unless mating or coming across food. Some lizards may form pair bonds if they come across each other frequently enough. When several happen to find the same large meal a hierarchy quickly develops with the biggest eating first and smaller lizards waiting for the scraps. Two equally large lizards may enter a contest of strength to determine dominance for both eating and mating.

Domestication

When trained from a young age, and given large amounts of food, this species is easily domesticated. The way to controlling this lizard is clearly through its stomach. They are most useful as simple combat beasts doing simple commands, usually to attack and tear into the front line of the enemy, or to rundown fleeing enemies.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Although they can be slaughtered and eaten (not very tasty), their greatest use is in battle. Their adaptability to most environments and four powerful legs and sharp claws allows them to be very useful in almost any type of environment that the job calls for. Their only weakness would be in cold environments where their metabolism significantly slows them down and potentially could force them into a form of hibernation.

Facial characteristics

This lizard has a long narrow head and snout, with a blunt nose and a mouth filled with sharp teeth.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Usually resides in warm to hot sunny locations from rock strewn hills and mountains, to deserts, forests, and grasslands.

Average Intelligence

Very low intelligence yet still able to be trained for simple commands. Very useful in combat.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

This lizard has rather poor hearing due in part to its single ear bone, that reduces hearing to certain low ranges, this often gives the impression that they are deaf. Although able to see prey at 1000 feet, it has poor night vision and difficulty seeing immobile objects. However, it excels with its other senses. It has a good sense of touch and can feel vibrations in the ground with specialized sensory scales on its feet, chin, and lips from far away. It’s most exquisite senses are those of smell and taste and go hand in hand. It uses its long, forked tongue to taste and smell and the chemicals trails of food, prey and carrion in the air from 5 to 10 miles away.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

The lizard will often lay in the sun motionless with its mouth open to allow some small birds to land and pick off any scraps of meat stuck between its teeth. Both the War Monitor and the birds benefit from this relationship.

Scientific Name

Varanus Bellum

Lifespan

20 years.

Conservation Status

There is no conservation for this species. It is easily domesticated and quite useful as a beast of battle for the local military.

Average Height

about 3.5 feet tall at the shoulder.

Average Weight

About 500 pounds.

Average Length

About 12 feet from outstretched head to tip of tail.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

The War Monitors body coloring usually ranges from greys to browns to greens and may have some striped markings to break up its outline. The colors are usually reminiscent of the environment in which it was born.