Description
Hatchlings and juveniles are a dark grey in colour, with regular rows of bright yellow-green dots which are particularly noticeable on the back. As they achieve adulthood, they turn completely black, losing the colourful dots. Fully grown specimens reach 90–120 centimetres (35–47 in) in length, with the males slightly larger than the females.
The black tree monitor is generally well adapted for living in trees. Its tail is particularly long, sometimes two-thirds of the overall body length, and is used in a prehensile manner to stabilize the animal in the branches. In fact, the tail is used solely for this purpose, as the animal does not evince the defensive tail-lashing behaviour seen in other monitor species. The black tree monitor’s feet sport large claws and adhesive soles, which help it to maintain grip in the trees. It also has unusually long teeth for a monitor of its size, which may help it to hold on to prey it catches in the canopy. Black tree monitors in the wild are reported to be nervous and high-strung; they will flee if threatened, and if handled carelessly, will scratch, bite, and defecate on the offender.
Read more about this topic: Black Tree Monitor
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“The type of fig leaf which each culture employs to cover its social taboos offers a twofold description of its morality. It reveals that certain unacknowledged behavior exists and it suggests the form that such behavior takes.”
—Freda Adler (b. 1934)
“As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.”
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965)