Today we had a guest lecture from one of the authors of the MBHNAP, a community-driven initiative designed to protect the habitat and values of the greater Mission Beach area (habitat critical to the conservation of the endangered Southern Cassowary). At the conclusion of the lecture, a classmate approached me and told me how he watched a large male Lace Monitor calmly walk past the classroom window and head north into the forest. I immediately bolted for the door and found the lizard 25 yards from the classroom nearly 20 feet up a eucalypt. I couldn’t believe it. I saw this individual for 3 days nearly two weeks ago, as he sat nearly 40 feet up a tree unmoving for 72 hours seemingly taunting me. I was unfortunately off-site when the varanid descended from his perch and subsequently missed my chance at a capture. Yet here he was again, definitely the same lizard in a significantly lower perch on a much more accessible tree. I scampered up a few branches and the monitor noticed my presence and greeted me with hissing and tail whipping. Yet what concerned me was his constant movement out towards the end of the branch, an area which definitely would not support my 200 pound frame. I realized that I simply would not be able to climb out and grab him as I planned and knocking him out of the tree would only allow me to watch him sprint into the denser rainforest as I remained on the branch. I quietly climbed down, cut a sapling, and herded the monitor towards the edge of the branch. I saw my chance and jumped, grabbing the 10 foot high foliage along the terminal branch and all hell broke loose. The lizard hit the ground running and took off back towards the trunk of the tree. I had worked for over a half hour getting him out, I definitely was not going through that process again. I hurdled over a pile of brush, crashed through a small sapling, and managed to grab the monitor just as he began making his way up the tree. Success! What a magnificent reptile, by far the largest lizard I have ever had the pleasure of capturing (and possibly the largest I might ever catch, unless I manage to get a perentie or a Komodo Dragon). This monitor was characterized by a saurian head, razor sharp nails, a 4 and a half foot frame, and a pungent odor that I can only liken to an un-cleaned iguana terrarium. I took some photos, examined the brilliant specimen, and filmed the release. The monitor chose not to take back towards the tree but rather dashed back into the rainforest. Later on in the evening, I caught a large Eastern Small-eyed Snake and another Carpet Python (only slightly smaller than the last specimen). I retired to my cabin exhausted and drifted off to sleep with ideas of the prehistoric Aussie monitor that reached nearly 18 feet running through my head, attempting to devise ways I would go about capturing this reptile…
