Behavior and Diet
Water monitors can be defensive, using their tail, claws, and jaws when fighting. They are excellent swimmers, using the raised fin located on their tails to steer through water. Water monitors are carnivores, and have a wide range of foods. They are known to eat fish, frogs, rodents, birds, crabs, and snakes. They have also been known to eat turtles, as well as young crocodiles and crocodile eggs. Like the Komodo Dragon, they will often eat carrion. Water monitors have been observed eating catfish in a fashion similar to a mammalian carnivore, tearing off chunks of meat with its sharp teeth while holding it with its forelegs and then separating different parts of the fish for sequential consumption. There was a 2005 documented case of a mongoose trying to take a fish meal from a Water Monitor. The mongoose is quarter the size of the lizard. The lizard won what turned out to be a fatal contest.
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