Animals

Hunt over a large home range of around 2.3 square miles for females and 7 square miles for males (keeping to a much smaller part of their home range during the dry season-when food and thus energy is in shorter supply). Mating and egg incubation occurs during the drier months with hatching coinciding with the onset of the rainy season. Seven or more soft smooth leathery-shelled eggs are buried in the ground. Sexual maturity is reached at three to five years. Life expectancy is about 15 years.
Also known as the Cape Monitor. The family of monitor lizards (31 species with 58 subspecies) includes the largest lizards now in existence; several species reach 5 feet or more. The largest is the Komodo Dragon at ten feet long, and the smallest is the eight inch short-tailed monitor of Australia.
Monitors can get quite agitated if brought to bay. At first they inflate their bodies and hiss. Then they attempt to deter any attack by violently lashing the tail like a whip. Finally they may attack by grabbing their adversary with powerful jaws and clawing with their feet.