Monitor Lizard

While the monitor uses its venom to kill its small preys (symptoms include rapid swelling, drop in blood pressure, and blood clot inhibition), it has a relatively mild effect on humans.

Control of prey population: Monitor lizards feed on a huge variety of food types (eg. insects, crabs, snakes, fish, etc); they control the population of their prey, and in turn are a source of food to larger predators (eg. crocodiles).

Although all monitor lizards look pretty similar, Singapore actually has three species—the Malayan water monitor lizard, Clouded monitor lizard and Dumeril's monitor lizard, the former of which is the most common.

When you see a pair of water monitors hugging one another, they are not mating! They are actually a pair of males wrestling one another. The one that pushes the other onto the ground wins.

They are usually carnivorous, eating a wide range of prey including birds, fish, insects, small mammals, and eggs.

Monitors have forked tongues, making them the only reptiles other than snakes to possess this characteristic. Like snakes, this tongue shape allows for better accuracy in locating a prey's scent.

Malaysian water monitors can remain under water for up to 30 minutes - which comes in handy when hunting aquatic prey.

These water monitors are comfortable in both fresh and saltwater and have been spotted swimming far out in the ocean.

The skin of monitor lizards is used in making a carnatic music percussion instrument called a kanjira. It is an instrument of the tambourine family.

Monitors swallow their food whole or in large pieces; they are able to dislocate their thyroid bone in order to enlarge their throat.