Behavior
V. salvadorii is an arboreal lizard. As such, it can hang onto branches with its rear legs and occasionally use its tail as a prehensile grip. The primary use of the tail, however, is to counterbalance its weight when leaping from one branch to another. The tail may also be used for defense, as captive specimens have attempted to whip their keepers with their tails. This species is occasionally seen in the pet trade, but has earned a reputation of being aggressive and unpredictable. Although they are known to rest and bask in trees, they sleep on the ground or submerged in water.
The monitors will rise up on their hind legs to check their surroundings, a behavior that has also been documented in Gould's monitors (V. gouldii). According to native belief, they will give a warning call if they see crocodiles. In general V. salvadorii avoids human contact, but their bites are capable of causing infection, like the Komodo dragon's. One fatality is reported from a bite in 1983 when a Papuan woman was bitten and later died from an infection.
Read more about this topic: Varanus Salvadorii
Famous quotes containing the word behavior:
“I don’t see much future for the Americans.... Everything about the behavior of American society reveals that it’s half Judaized, and the other half negrified. How can one expect a State like that to hold together?”
—Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
“No one knows better than children how much they need the authority that protects, that sets the outer limits of behavior with known and prescribed consequences. As one little boy expressed it to his mother, “You care what I do.””
—Leontine Young (20th century)
“No one thinks anything silly is suitable when they are an adolescent. Such an enormous share of their own behavior is silly that they lose all proper perspective on silliness, like a baker who is nauseated by the sight of his own eclairs. This provides another good argument for the emerging theory that the best use of cryogenics is to freeze all human beings when they are between the ages of twelve and nineteen.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)