Green Tree Monitor Varanus prasinus

The pretty Green Tree Monitor, also called the Emerald Tree Monitor, is a medium-sized, fast, arboreal lizard native to Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Its habitat is rainforest. Its attractive background colour can vary from lime green to turquoise with black bars, useful for camouflage in the leaves but unfortunate in making it sought after in the pet trade.

Monitor lizards and Tegus have forked tongues like snakes to "taste" their environment.

Unusually for monitor lizards, the Green Tree Monitor has a prehensile tail to help in its arboreal habitat.