The discovery of the "five-clawed golden dragon" in Baoshan, Yunnan Province, really makes us applaud the improvement of the ecological environment, and indeed, according to statistics, the forest land area in Yunnan has reached 424 million mu, the forest coverage rate has exceeded 65%, and the ecological governance effect is gratifying.
It is precisely for this reason that more and more wild animals that have "disappeared" for a long time will appear one after another, bringing surprises to people.
However, not all animals can live so freely, such as the "five-clawed golden dragon". In China, it is a first-class wild protected animal and a critically endangered species, and no one may catch it, let alone raise it without permission;
Looking around the world, some of them are treated as pets, and then there are various problems, and some are even more miserable, skinned into bags, or directly served to the table.
First of all, let's understand the "five-clawed golden dragon", just like the Komodo dragon is often called "Komodo dragon", the monitor lizard can always be related to the "dragon" because of its appearance, the "five-clawed golden dragon" got its name for this reason, and "gold" refers to the black and yellow color of their skin and scales, and the "five-clawed" naturally refers to the number of claws on the limbs.
In addition to the domineering name of the "five-clawed golden dragon", the round-nosed monitor lizard, the water monitor lizard, and the four-legged snake refer to it.
"Round-nosed monitor lizards" highlight the round (oval) characteristics of their nostrils; "water monitor lizards" focus on describing their wateriness; "four-legged snakes" are a folk name based on their pointed heads, long tails, and limbs.
Since it is a monitor lizard, the size is naturally not small, the round-nosed monitor lizard can reach 1.5 meters to 2 meters in length, and the weight can grow to 40 to 50 pounds, which is second only to the Komodo dragon.
Although people do not know whether the round-nosed monitor lizard has a venom gland that can secrete venom like the Komodo dragon, but their predation ability is not ambiguous, tails, claws, swimming skills can come in handy, in a word, that is, they can "prey on everything", from crabs and frogs, to snakes and small crocodiles, can become a meal for round-nosed monitor lizards.
When round-nosed monitor lizards enter predation mode, they use their long tongues as "detectors" to sense odors and pinpoint the direction of their prey.
Since speed is not the absolute advantage of round-nosed monitor lizards, they often find a place for cover after approaching their prey, and then suddenly attack at the right time. And those prey that arrive in hand will most likely be swallowed alive from beginning to end by round-nosed monitor lizards.
As mentioned earlier, round-nosed monitor lizards are very rare in China, and there are only sporadic distributions in Yunnan, Hainan, Guangdong and Guangxi, so that people cannot count their numbers at all.
But in Southeast Asia, round-nosed monitor lizards are very common, and they can be found in swamps, forests, and estuaries.
A large number does not mean that round-nosed monitor lizards can be hunted and killed, but this simple truth is not understood by everyone, and a large number of round-nosed monitor lizards die tragically every year.
First, breeding. Raising round-nosed monitor lizards as pets sounds like finding a good home for these animals, but in fact, raising and raising well is a word difference, and the difference is vast.
Like most animals, people tend to raise cubs, and when pets grow up, they are either subject to the size of the space, or to the food supply, or to pet diseases, and the abandonment rate will skyrocket. If a round-nosed monitor lizard in poor physical condition is abandoned, it will soon die; even if the round-nosed monitor lizard is in good physical condition and has been kept as a pet since childhood, it is difficult to survive in the wild.
Second, eat. People have been preying on round-nosed monitor lizards for a long time, which makes round-nosed monitor lizards that originally live up to 150 years old a plate of Chinese food.
People cook round-nosed monitor lizards in a variety of ways, and some people who eat them believe that round-nosed monitor lizard meat can cure skin diseases, and some are simply for curiosity. It is even more regrettable that, like many animals that are struggling to survive, some people believe that the round-nosed monitor lizard has an aphrodisiac effect, and that anything that is really associated with this matter is not far from extinction.
Again, make the package. Like crocodile skin, the skin of the round-nosed monitor lizard is also used to make bags, especially luxury bags, because of its unique black-gold luster, as well as soft, thin and tough features, round-nosed monitor lizard skin is highly sought after. According to statistics, millions of round-nosed monitor lizard skins are sent around the world every year to make handbags, belts, straps and so on.
And in order to pursue the color of leather, most of the round-nosed monitor lizards that have been peeled are not very old, and the length of a skin from the nose to the anus is about 1 meter, which poses a great threat to the round-nosed monitor lizard population.
Or that sentence, the number of large does not mean that it can be wantonly harmed, the improvement of China's ecological environment has made the round-nosed monitor lizard "reappear", and in the area where the round-nosed monitor lizard was originally widely distributed, it should be cherished before things have not gotten worse.