Savanna Monitor

• Its teeth are blunt and flattened rather than sharp, adapted to crushing the shells of beetles, snails and millipedes instead of tearing flesh, a clear case of specialisation within a group of generalist predators.
• It is one of the most heavily exported reptiles on the planet: hundreds of thousands of animals leave Ghana, Togo and Benin each year for the pet trade, most of them caught in the wild.
• It aestivates through the dry season: it buries itself in a burrow and lowers its metabolism until the rains return, going months without eating.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (reptile)

Habitat and environment

Savannah, thorn scrub and open woodland of the Sudanian belt of Africa

Sexual maturity

2 years

Gestation / incubation

160 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

30 eggs

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Varanus exanthematicus