Gray's Monitor Varanus olivaceus

Gray's Monitor is native to three islands of the Philippines. Despite being a giant lizard with adults reaching 180 cm length and 9 kilos weight, it is mainly arboreal.

Monitor lizards and Tegus have forked tongues like snakes to "taste" their environment. Gray's Monitor climbs well. Unusually for a Monitor, its diet is mainly fruit (with some insects and eggs).

Gray's is one of the rarest monitor lizards, rarer than its cousin, the Komodo Dragon, and faces continuing threats from habitat destruction for housing and agriculture as well as being hunted for food.