Malayan

The Malayan, or common, water monitor is native to the Greater Sunda Islands and coastal areas of the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea from Sri Lanka through southern China. As with other monitor lizards, the Malayan water monitor has an elongated head and neck, a relatively heavy body, a long tail, and well-developed legs. Their tongues are long, forked, and snakelike, and adults can grow to 2.7 meters (9 feet).
Common water monitors are carnivorous and often consume large insects and spiders, other lizards, small mammals, fish, mollusks, and birds. These lizards do not surprise their prey; they actively pursue their prey by swimming, climbing, or running after them. They also eat carrion and corpses of human beings, which they have been known to excavate and devour. People have hunted this species for food and their skins, which are used in traditional medicine and leather products.



Humans bitten by common water monitors may be injected with venom, which produces a mild, but not fatal effect, as well as exposed to infectious bacteria. This monitor can also use its whip-like tail and sharp claws as weapons. Although some reports of people dying from attacks by large individuals exist, they are probably untrue.