Savannah Monitor

The savannah monitor (Varanus exanthematicus), also called Bosc's monitor after the French naturalist who first described it in 1792, is a medium-sized monitor lizard native to a broad band of sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal east to Sudan and south toward the Congo River and the Rift Valley. It has a stout body, short limbs, and large, coarse scales, and its blunt teeth are adapted for crushing the snails and other hard-bodied invertebrates that make up much of its diet, along with insects, frogs, and occasional carrion. It is one of the most commonly traded monitor lizards in the international pet trade. The IUCN assesses it as Least Concern.