The Cape monitor lizard is also called the Bosca monitor lizard or the steppe monitor lizard (lat.Varanus exanthematicus) is a species of reptile from the monitor lizard family. This name for this species is erroneous, since this animal does not live in the Cape Mountains, but since it was first brought to Europe and described from South Africa, this name has stuck with it to this day.
Subspecies of this lizard are not distinguished. However, some herpetologists in their works provide a description of 4 subspecies, based on their habitat, but almost all taxonomists have recognized them as invalid, and consider the species to be integral.
These animals as adults have a body length with a tail of 80–110 cm and up to 2 meters. Their body is atypical for monitor lizards, as it is quite heavy, but it fully corresponds to the life activity that the animal leads. That is, it is aimed at the body’s endurance and economy. vital energy, and not for climbing trees and diving in water.
Cape monitor lizards have a short body and muzzle; it has obliquely set nostrils, shaped like slits, located very close to the eyes. These animals have short fingers with very large claws. The lizard's body is covered with small scales, the tail is laterally compressed and has a double ridge on the upper edge. The color of these reptiles is gray-brown with yellow stripes and spots. The underside of the monitor lizard's body is lighter than the back, the throat is yellowish-white, and the tail has brown and yellow rings.

Spreading

Cape monitor lizards are distributed in field zones from west to east of central Africa, in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Hanoi, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo and Uganda.

Life in nature

In nature, Cape monitor lizards live in savanna and semi-desert biotopes, dry forests, rocky savannas, arid scrub (shrub thickets) and foothills. This lizard leads a terrestrial lifestyle, being active during the day. As a shelter, reptiles dig holes on their own, or use ready-made ones that belonged to rodents. Monitor lizards also settle among piles of stones, crevices and at the roots of trees and bushes.

When an aggressor appears next to him, the Cape monitor lizard turns sideways to him, swells, bends his tail to the opposite side of the body and raises it to strike. If, when danger arises, the lizard cannot hide anywhere and thereby escape, it clings to the stones so tightly that it is almost impossible to tear it off.

With the onset of a hot time of day, animals hide in their shelters and come out from there only with the onset of coolness. Cape monitor lizards can climb low into trees and bushes, where, hiding in a zone of relative ventilation, they can lie in wait for their prey.

This species of animal is very territorial and therefore always adheres to the boundaries of its territory.

IN wildlife The lizard's diet consists mainly of carrion. They also hunt, catching small mammals, insects, frogs, crayfish and the like. The monitor lizard eats everything: from internal organs to bones. He does not chew food, but bites off large pieces of it and swallows.
After the animal has eaten, it lies down half asleep to digest what it has eaten; at this moment the animal’s activity is reduced and it is relaxed. Monitor lizards show any activity only when they are in danger or hungry.

This reptile is often found near rivers and lakes and, therefore, the local natives consider them sacred animals and believe that the death of these animals will lead to a decrease in the amount of water.

Life in a terrarium

Before you get a Cape monitor lizard in your apartment as pet, you must understand that this will require costs from you, as future owners, both material and time.

Cape monitor lizards require a horizontal type terrarium for Palaearctic animals. The dimensions of such a terrarium should be 120cm long and 60cm wide per animal. and a height of 50 cm. A certain temperature must be maintained in it; this can be achieved by using a thermal stone, a thermal mat or using an incandescent lamp. In the place where the heater is located, the temperature during the day should be up to +32 degrees, at night +25 degrees, where it is not, +28 during the day, and +20 degrees at night. In the area where high temperature regime, there should be a large stone, branch or shelf, since the monitor lizard needs to warm up well, stretching out its whole body on an elevated surface. These animals will feel much more comfortable if they have a shelter in the terrarium, such as a durable stone grotto, a shelf, all kinds of houses, and the like. It is best to use artificial turf with a pile height of 2mm as a filler; you can also add coarse gravel or sand to the bottom. The monitor lizard should have a small pool (reservoir) in its terrarium, of such a size that the lizard can fit in and a drinking bowl from which the animal will drink. The terrarium should be sprayed daily with fresh, warm, non-stagnant water.
In addition to conventional incandescent and light lamps, a new home for a monitor lizard should contain an ultraviolet lamp from ReptiGlo with a spectrum of 8.0 or 10.0 radiation units. They should burn for the animal for 12 hours every day. During the period of activity, the Cape monitor lizard should have 12 hours of daylight and temperature in the terrarium.

These lizards are full-fledged predators. In their natural habitat, during periods of drought they cannot receive sufficient quantity food and therefore gorge themselves on it “in reserve.” This explains their tendency to become obese.
Feeding these reptiles at home should be varied and nutritious. They need to be given invertebrate (insects, spiders, shellfish) and vertebrate (small mammals, birds, eggs, reptiles) animals. Young Cape monitor lizards are fed crickets, cockroaches, zoophobes, earthworms, pebbles, and later one-month-old pups. For adult lizards, their diet should include mice, rats, hamsters, chickens, eggs, frogs, and fish.

Monitor lizards don’t care about live food or not, so they can be given meat (just not fatty) and offal, but they should not be abused in any case, since reptiles must eat the whole animal, that is, with bones, skin and internal organs. Just before giving the monitor lizard frozen food or food from the refrigerator, it must first be thawed and warmed, since cold food causes severe digestive upset in animals.
The frequency of feeding monitor lizards should be at least once every two days, and preferably daily, but do not forget about the animals’ tendency to obesity and, therefore, if the reptile begins to get fat, then it is necessary to reduce the amount of food given.

It is also necessary to give the monitor lizard vitamin and mineral supplements, such as Repti Life and Repti Cal.

The lizard should have water constantly and change it regularly, but at least once a day. Warm water should always be poured into the drinking bowl, without signs of stagnation or spoilage.

Always remember that half of a monitor lizard’s health comes from the conditions in which it is kept, and the rest from its feeding. That's why healthy food- healthy monitor lizard.

Physiology

In Cape monitor lizards there is no difference in color between male and female, so it is impossible to determine who is in front of you. In males, compared to females, the tail is slightly thicker at the base, but this is not very well visualized due to the overall thickness of the tail itself. An accurate determination of the sex of an animal is only possible when using the sex test method.

Lizards become sexually mature at 3–4 years of age, having reached the size of an adult animal.

The breeding season, like that of other monitor lizards, occurs during the wet season, that is, the rainy season and is a time of increased aggressiveness. Males constantly chase females, often preventing them from feeding normally. When they overtake their partners, they grab them with their teeth in the neck area and, holding them, insert their hemipenises into them. The copulation process lasts approximately 15 minutes. After which the female lays eggs after 45–65 days. To do this, she digs a hole under them in the sand or earth about 10 cm deep in a damp, but not damp place. The number of eggs in a clutch ranges from 25 to 30, but sometimes it reaches 40. After 170 - 180 days, small monitor lizards are born from them. They are fully formed and ready for independent living. They begin to feed from the moment they finish absorbing the yolk reserve.

Data

1. When kept at home, Cape monitor lizards are quite aggressive.

2. When a human monitor lizard bites, the wound itself is not as dangerous as the occurrence of severe inflammation up to sepsis, since in oral cavity In lizards, pathogenic microorganisms are abundantly present.

3. Included in Annexes I and II of the Convention on International Trade in Wildlife (CITES).

4. Most cape monitor exports come from Ghana, Kenya, Togo and Tanzania.

5. Cape monitor lizards can defend themselves by shooting feces at the enemy.

Health to you and your pets!

We know very little about the time of the appearance of the first domestic animals; there is practically no confirmed information about them. There are no legends or chronicles preserved about that period of human life when we were able to tame wild animals. It is believed that already in the Stone Age, ancient people had domesticated animals, the ancestors of today's domestic animals. The time when man got modern domestic animals remains unknown to science, and the formation of today's domestic animals as a species is also unknown.

Scientists assume that every domestic animal has its wild ancestor. Proof of this is archaeological excavations carried out on the ruins of ancient human settlements. During excavations, bones belonging to domestic animals were found ancient world. So it can be argued that even in such a distant era of human life, domesticated animals accompanied us. Today there are species of domestic animals that are no longer found in the wild.

Many of today's wild animals are feral animals caused by humans. For example, let's take America or Australia as clear evidence of this theory. Almost all domestic animals were brought to these continents from Europe. These animals have found fertile soil for life and development. An example of this is hares or rabbits in Australia. Due to the fact that there are no natural predators dangerous for this species on this continent, they multiplied in huge numbers and went wild. Since all rabbits were domesticated and brought by Europeans for their needs. Therefore, we can say with confidence that more than half of wild domesticated animals are former domestic animals. For example, wild city cats and dogs.

Be that as it may, the question of the origin of domestic animals should be considered open. As for our pets. The first confirmations in chronicles and legends we meet are a dog and a cat. In Egypt, the cat was a sacred animal, and dogs were actively used by humanity in the ancient era. There is plenty of evidence for this. In Europe, the cat appeared in its mass after crusade, but firmly and quickly occupied the niche of a pet and mouse hunter. Before them, Europeans used various animals to catch mice, such as weasels or genets.

Domestic animals are divided into two unequal species.

The first type of domestic animal is farm animals that directly benefit humans. Meat, wool, fur and many others useful things, goods, and are also used by us for food. But they do not live directly in the same room with a person.

The second type is pet animals (companions), which we see every day in our houses or apartments. They brighten up our leisure time, entertain us and give us pleasure. And most of them are almost useless for practical purposes. modern world, these are for example hamsters, guinea pigs, parrots and many others.

Animals of the same species can often belong to both species, both farm animals and pets. A striking example Therefore, rabbits and ferrets are kept at home as pets, but are also bred for meat and fur. Also, some waste from pets can be used, for example, the hair of cats and dogs for knitting various items or as insulation. For example, belts made of dog hair.

Many doctors note the positive impact of pets on human health and well-being. We can notice that many families who keep animals at home note that these animals create comfort, calm, and relieve stress.

This encyclopedia was created by us to help pet lovers. We hope that our encyclopedia will help you in choosing a pet and caring for it.

If you have interesting observations of your pet’s behavior and want to share information about a pet or edit an article on our website. And if you have a nursery, veterinary clinic or animal hotel near your home, be sure to write to us about them at , so that we can add this information to the database on our website.

(Varanus exanthematicus)- a medium-sized species of monitor lizards native to Africa.

Description

Cape monitor includes five subspecies. For this reason, the description and size of the animal differ in most literary sources. The steppe monitor lizard has a wide head, short neck and tail. The tail tapers and has a double toothed ridge. Cape monitor lizards can reach up to 1.5 meters in length. Some sources claim that they grow up to 2 meters in length. Small identical scales cover the entire cranial region of the animal. The number of rows of scales in the abdominal region is about 60-110 pieces.

The color of the Cape monitor lizard varies depending on the subspecies and can be from gray to Brown. On the back there are rows of round yellow spots with dark edging. The tail is alternately decorated with brown and yellowish rings. Bottom part the body and the inside of the limbs have a yellow tint.

Area

The steppe monitor lizard lives throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa. It is found in western and central Africa, and also in the south towards Democratic Republic Congo.

Habitat

The Cape monitor occupies a variety of habitats in Africa. It prefers savannas, but is also well adapted to other habitats. The steppe monitor lizard has adapted to life in rocky areas, open forests and wooded areas. They are not found in deserts.

Nutrition

According to some sources, the diet of adult Cape monitor lizards in the wild consists of small mammals, birds, snakes, toads, lizards and eggs. Another source contradicts these findings and points out that there is no evidence that the steppe monitor eats. Most adult steppe monitor lizards also consume snails. They also eat carrion if they are able to swallow it. Juveniles are primarily insectivores because they do not have teeth to crack snail shells. Cape monitor lizards have developed a method of eating poisonous ones. Using their chin, they rub the centipede for up to fifteen minutes before eating. It is believed that this procedure allows for the disposal of the toxic liquid that centipedes secrete for defense.

The feeding habits of the steppe monitor lizard depend on the weather. During the rainy season, when food is abundant and easily accessible, they have a feast. During the dry season, Cape monitor lizards mainly live off the fat reserves they acquired during the rainy season. The wet season lasts about eight months. During this time, the steppe monitor lizard can consume up to one tenth of its body weight in one day.

Reproduction

The breeding season for Cape monitor lizards, as well as the feasting period, is during the rainy season. When the male finds a suitable female, he follows her tirelessly, sometimes biting or scratching her neck and legs with his claws. In the end, the female gives the go-ahead for mating.

Female steppe monitor lizards dig nests and, as a rule, lay from 20 to 50 eggs. Other sources say that females dig nests 15-30 cm deep and lay no more than 15 eggs. Some females lay eggs in abandoned termite mounds. The eggs take five to six months to incubate. As a rule, the offspring hatch in March. The highest growth rate of young Cape monitor lizards is observed during the first two months of life.

Behavior

Male steppe monitor lizards are very territorial and defend their possessions with particular aggressiveness. If two males cross paths, the first thing they do is intimidate each other. If no one wants to retreat, a fight begins, during which their bodies are intertwined, and everyone strives to bite their opponent harder. They are capable of inflicting very serious injuries on each other. If you drive a steppe monitor lizard into a corner, it will certainly show aggression, which is expressed by loud hissing and movements of its tail. If the predator doesn't back down, they can end up dead.

Cape monitor lizards are most active during the day. They often seek refuge in burrows during the heat of the day. The steppe monitor lizard uses its tongue for diagnostics environment. On average, they stick out their tongue 20 to 40 times every two minutes.

Economic value for humans: Positive

Steppe monitor lizards are very popular in the United States as pets. Also, their skin is used for the leather industry.

Security status

Currently, the Cape monitor is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN.

Cape monitor

Cape monitor ( Varanus exanthematicus) distributed in Western and Central Africa, where it inhabits mainly semi-desert areas. Adults can reach two meters in length, but are usually much smaller.

The appearance of the Cape monitor lizard is contrastingly different from the appearance of the Bengal. This is a typical ambush predator, patiently waiting for an unwary prey to come too close, and only then making its only attack. The body of the Cape monitor lizard is stocky, the neck and shoulders are covered with large scales that protect the victim from being bitten. The head of the monitor lizard is wide, blunt-nosed, very powerful relative to the body. The eyes can be completely immersed in the sockets - this is a protective device against bites of the victim. The tail of the Cape monitor lizard is short, muscular and often helps the monitor lizard to cling to uneven ground to hold its prey. The color of the monitor lizard is gray or brown with a characteristic eye-shaped pattern on the back. This monitor lizard does not like to climb at all, so he needs a horizontal terrarium with a single drinking bowl. “Kapychi” don’t like water either.

Unlike the hyper-mobile Bengal monitor lizards, all Cape free time spend lying under a light bulb, perking up only for eating. These monitor lizards are indiscriminate when it comes to food and willingly eat any food - from mice to pieces of meat. One of my monitor lizards was different interesting feature: instead of the frogs offered to him from tweezers, as soon as I opened the terrarium door, he immediately rushed to my fingers, apparently wanting to snatch a larger piece. These monitor lizards hunt like this: noticing when the mouse comes closer, the monitor lizard makes a lightning-fast lunge, grabbing the prey by the head. Then, closing his eyes to protect them from the clutches of the escaping prey, the monitor lizard crushes the rodent under itself, breaking its back with a sharp movement of its powerful neck. After which he released the limp game and, having examined it (and felt it with his tongue), began to swallow it from the head.

In order not to repeat myself, I will say that fortification, feeding, and quartzing of “kapychas” are carried out as for Bengal monitor lizards. I will add that Cape monitor lizards are more timid, and when raising young animals, you should not use containers that are too spacious “for growth.” Without constant contact with humans, monitor lizards grow nervous and often behave too aggressively. Therefore, as the monitor lizard grows, it is better to change several terrariums that are suitable in size for your pet at different stages of its growth. The dimensions of the terrarium are determined in the same way as for Bengal monitor lizards.

The temperature under the heater should reach 35 °C, and in the coolest corner - about 20 °C. Cape monitor lizards like to bask on large rocks, so I place a large rock under an incandescent lamp.

One of my monitor lizards developed a complex relationship with a light bulb hanging in the terrarium. For some reason, as soon as I turned it on, my restless pet decided that it was edible and actively jumped towards it, grabbing it with his teeth. The light bulb was quite tough for him - a minion - and he, after much labor, finally tore it out of the base, plunging his terrarium into darkness. If the monitor lizard was full, then he mercifully “did not hunt” for the ill-fated source of light, but peacefully basked under it. Therefore, later I even began to determine the “mood” of my monitor lizard: if I come home from work and there is no light, it means he is hungry.

Unlike my pet Bengal monitor, Cape monitors cannot be kept without a terrarium. Only once they are free do they make every effort to crawl into a hard-to-reach crevice. This happened with one monitor lizard, who went off on his own in search of adventure, and I spent the entire evening looking for him around the apartment, crawling through all the nooks and crannies. I had already despaired of finding him, if not for my cat, who constantly monitored the additions to my menagerie and received the title of “zoo administrator,” and hovered around the battery central heating. Looking under the curtain, I saw my handsome monitor lizard, tightly stuck between the wall and the battery section. His limply hanging head raised doubts whether he was even alive. With great difficulty, I pulled out the victim, who somehow managed to get firmly lodged in a narrow crevice. I took the half-dead “kapych” to the bathroom and after a cool shower, the unlucky traveler began to show signs of life. Another hour and I would not have been able to save my pet. Therefore, terrarium doors should be equipped with external latches that will prevent your pets from taking unscheduled walks. Maybe another option will suit you - get a “sentinel” cat...

Unlike Bengal monitor lizards, Cape monitor lizards need winter rest. Around the beginning of December, I feed the monitor lizards for the last time, after which I keep the heating on for a week, and then I turn off the heating and lights for a month. A month later I turn on the lights and heating and a few days later I carry out the first feeding. It is important to allow only well-fed animals to hibernate. The fatness of monitor lizards is determined by the tail: if it is round in cross-section, then the animal is well nourished. If it is triangular, the shape of the vertebrae is visible, then it is better to keep such a monitor lizard without wintering. In Bengal monitor lizards, fatness is also determined, taking into account that the tail of this species has a keel, which is the norm.

The lifespan of the Cape monitor lizard often reaches 10 years or more, therefore, by getting a monitor lizard, you gain a companion for more than one year.

After the winter break, which is a stimulating factor, monitor lizards are bred - breeders are planted. In an apartment, this is extremely difficult, for the same reasons as breeding Bengal monitor lizards. Briefly, I will say that the female lays about 30 eggs, the incubation of which at a temperature of 27-32 °C is 170-175 days (according to the Moscow Zoo).

In similar conditions it is possible to keep gray monitor lizard ( Varanus griseus), which is characterized by pronounced aggressiveness and very poor adaptability in captivity. Therefore, this type of monitor lizard cannot be recommended as a pet to a novice terrarium keeper.

Keeping a monitor lizard. The Cape monitor lizard is an inhabitant of rocky areas and forests of Africa