Animalia > Chordata > Squamata > Varanidae > Varanus > Varanus niloticus

Varanus niloticus (Nile Monitor, Water Leguaan)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

The Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus) is a large member of the monitor lizard family (Varanidae) found throughout much of Africa but absent from the west where it is replaced by Varanus stellatus. Other common names include the African small-grain lizard, water leguaan or river leguaan (leguan, leguaan, and likkewaan mean monitor lizard in South African English, and can be used interchangeably).
View Wikipedia Record: Varanus niloticus

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Varanus niloticus

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  6.371 lbs (2.89 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  25 grams
Female Weight [2]  6.233 lbs (2.827 kg)
Female Maturity [2]  3 years 6 months
Male Maturity [2]  3 years 6 months
Gestation [2]  7 months 3 days
Litter Size [2]  27
Litters / Year [2]  1
Maximum Longevity [4]  15 years
Reproductive Mode [3]  Oviparous
Snout to Vent Length [2]  21 inches (54 cm)
Habitat Substrate [3]  Semi-aquatic

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa Kenya, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania No
Eastern Afromontane Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe No
Guinean Forests of West Africa Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Togo No
Horn of Africa Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Oman, Somalia, Yemen No
Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland No

Prey / Diet

Anas capensis (Cape Teal)[5]
Miopithecus talapoin (talapoin)[6]
Phrynobatrachus mababiensis (Mababe River Frog)[5]
Psammophis angolensis (Dwarf Sand Snake)[5]
Steatomys pratensis (fat mouse)[5]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Asio capensis (Marsh Owl)[5]

Consumers

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Length–weight allometries in lizards, S. Meiri, Journal of Zoology 281 (2010) 218–226
♦ 2Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 3Meiri, Shai (2019), Data from: Traits of lizards of the world: variation around a successful evolutionary design, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.f6t39kj
♦ 4de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 5The Serengeti food web: empirical quantification and analysis of topological changes under increasing human impact, Sara N. de Visser, Bernd P. Freymann and Han Olff, Journal of Animal Ecology 2011, 80, 484–494
♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 7Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0