#1725 · 🦎 reptiles

Nile Monitor

🇳🇱 Nijlvaraan ·Varanus niloticus

LCleast concern 🦎 Reptiles 📍 outside Europe

9 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

1. © Bart Wursten · CC BY-NC 4.0
2. © susanne22 · CC BY-NC 4.0
3. © Steve Mech · CC BY-NC 4.0
4. © Tristan Scholze · CC BY-NC 4.0
5. © Mathias D'haen · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
6. © copper · CC BY-NC 4.0
7. © Sebastián Lescano · CC BY-NC 4.0
8. © dikdik · CC BY-NC 4.0
9. © Antonio Rodriguez Sinovas · CC BY-NC 4.0

what is it?

The Nile monitor ( Varanus niloticus ) is a large member of the monitor lizard family (Varanidae) found throughout much of Africa, but is absent from the west, where it is replaced by Varanus stellatus . Other common names include the African small-grain lizard , water leguaan or river leguaan (leguan, leguaan, and likkewaan mean monitor lizard in South African English, and can be used interchangeably).

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 7,189iNaturalist observations
threat LCleast concern

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
7,189 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named in 1766 (260 years ago).