Bart Bear's Blog

This is the biggest lizard that I have ever seen. It is a Goanna, and it lives at Wildlife World in Sydney, safely behind thick glass so that it can't get at small bears. These guys are also called Monitor lizards, and the biggest ones grow almost 2 metres long. Goannas eat almost anything small enough to fit down their throat. They can run fast, swim and climb trees. When they run they rear up onto their hind legs; they really look funny do thist. Goannas live in burrows in the ground. We saw lots of the smaller sand goannas when we visited the Whitsundays and Lizard Island. Actually, my hero Captain Cook, named Lizard Island after the goannas he saw there. I was very glad that this one was safely caged because he was very interested in me and I was able to tease him in safety.

Labels: animals, Captain Cook, New South Wales, Sydney