Uninvited guest in the backyard: 2-meter-long monitor lizard

A Florida family is too scared to use their pool — and for good reason. Earlier last week, the family saw a monitor lizard the size of an adult lurking near their home.

ABC's local news station 10 in Miami-Dade reported on Aug. 29 that the Lieberman family was living in David, Florida, when they spotted an uninvited guest wandering in their backyard. Zack and Maria Lieberman told reporters that the lizard was too big and that they were a little worried about the safety of their two children.

According to local news channel 10, the giant reptile — identified as a Varanus salvator — is about 2 meters long. The Miami Herald reported that the scaled intruder had been showing up near Lieberman's home for several days and had so far escaped capture by local trap hunters and wildlife departments.

The Lieberman family told Local News 10 that on Aug. 29 a neighbor came to the door to tell the Lieberman family that the lizard was a runaway pet. But the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) told Miami News That since no one has reported the loss of the monitor lizard, anyone with a permit can set a trap to catch it.

According to the Miami Herald, a dog accompanying a trap hunter temporarily detected the smell and led the seekers to a hole that looked a little hopeful, but the hole turned out to be empty.

Huge intruder

In the genus Monitor Lizard, the monitor lizard is a carnivorous reptile with a long neck, a forked tongue, a muscular tail, and a body. They are native to Asia, Africa and Oceania, although some have established themselves in the Americas as invasive species. This genus contains the world's largest lizard, the Varanus komodoensis, which can grow up to 3 meters in length.

To the relief of Floridians, Komodo dragons lived only in Indonesia, but some of their monitor lizard relatives escaped or were released into the wild after being brought to the United States as alternative pets and then made their home in Florida. According to the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Division of the University of Florida, the species of monitor lizards found in Florida include crocodile monitor lizards (Sardissia monitor lizards), water monitor lizards, prairie monitor lizards, peach-throated monitor lizards and two species of black-throated monitor lizards.

The FWC said another species of monitor lizard, the semi-aquatic Nile monitor lizard (Varanus niloticus), was the most resistant and troublesome reptile intruder.

Meanwhile, the hunt for the wayward Asian water monitor lizard continues. Miami News 7 reported that along with FWC, "Trap Mike" Mike Kimmel, a wildlife trap hunter from Martin County Wildlife Trappers and Removals, is still spying on the haunted monitor lizard and trying to lure it in with a chicken leg.

This article is translated from Live Science and published by translator Diehard under the Creative Commons License (BY-NC).