Argus Monitor Varanus panoptes

The handsome yellow and black Argus Monitor, named after the giant with one hundred eyes of Greek mythology and also called the Yellow-spotted Monitor, is a large lizard native to northern Australia and southern New Guinea. There is a red variant subspecies.

The female can reach 3 feet length and the male nearly 5 feet. It has an unusual activity to spot predators or prey: it raises itself up on its hind legs, supported by its tail.

They climb well.

How many monitors does it take to change a lightbulb?.

Like most monitor lizards it is a carnivore that will eat anything it can cram into its mouth.

It has suffered significant population decline from the infestation of toxic Cane Toads in Australia.