I was over Lumpini way yesterday with several hours to
myself so I did one of my favourite things: I went monitor lizard hunting in
Lumpini Park. I love these creatures. They're so unlike anything I've ever encountered anywhere else. (Thank heavens; can you imagine the hysteria if these climbed out of the Serpentine one day?) My normal practice is to tear around the park, wondering why
there aren’t any lizards to be seen and it’s only as I slow down and accept
Thai time that they become visible. I think there might be a life lesson there.
I was sketching a tree (badly) when this little baby – about
fifty centimetres long - appeared. He was beautifully marked. His yellow spots - which looked as though he'd been assembled from beads - make him, according to my book, a simple Water Monitor Lizard.
He seemed oblivious to me, a metre or two away. He moved
about flicking his tongue and exploring and then, after playing for a bit in a
puddle of water, he took off around the edge of the lake.
I watched him for a long time and then I decided to go in
search of another; greedily I wanted a bigger one. On the opposite side of the
lake I’d seen a group of adults doing T’ai Chi. As I approached them I saw a
piece of tree that looked a lot like a monitor lizard’s head but I decided it
couldn’t be because it was so close to the T’ai Chi practice.
Then it moved.
This chap was about two metres nose to tail tip. According to my reference book I'd swear it was a Bengal Monitor Lizard but these aren't documented (in the book) as living in Thailand though they do live as our near neighbours in Burma and I'm not sure they have much respect for the border control. So the next best (and a bit unsatisfactory) ID would be the South East Asian Monitor Lizard, famous for their scavenging
– hence the T’ai Chi people. Maybe it is then.
