From The Wonderful World of Animals
The Blue Tree Monitor (Varanus macraei) is a strikingly vibrant lizard renowned for its electric blue and black patterning. First described by science in 2001, it is considered one of the most beautiful and intelligent members of the monitor family.
Appearance: Its black body is covered in turquoise-blue “ocelli” (eye-like spots). It has a long, slender neck and a prehensile tail that is nearly twice its body length, used like a fifth limb for climbing.
Size: They can reach a total length of about 3.5 feet (1.1 meters), with males being slightly larger and more “muscular” than females.
Native Habitat: This species is found exclusively on the island of Batanta in Indonesia, a tiny area of only 450 km².
Intelligence: Highly alert and capable of problem- solving, these lizards have been observed using “puzzle boxes” in captivity to retrieve food.
Here’s a photo of a baby in a more flattering light.
This is clearly a pokemon, psychic/electric type. It keeps inadvertently hypnotising children into hugging it. It is very lonely.
No, seriously, do they regularly do that tail thing? Does it serve a purpose? Off to find more videos.
That sounds like quite an OP Pokemon.
The tail’s main purpose seems to be locomotion, being able to grasp branches much further away than would otherwise be possible. They sound like they are almost completely arboreal, rarely taking to the ground, so that makes sense it would be the primary purpose. I also found a source saying that with the tail’s great mobility, they can strike with it as a defensive threat. Also, from skimming some reptile Reddit and herp forums trying to make sure this was real, it also looks to have some nonverbal communication uses like a dog or cat’s tail body language. It became popular in the pet trade very quickly, and within just a few years seems to have gone missing completely from one of the few small islands it exists on.
Ah fuck, I was foolishly hoping that sentence would end in “the islands’ population has tripled through increased conservation efforts” or something. Humans suck.
They do seem to be doing more captive breeding now, as they sell for around $3,000-5,000, which, while probably not great, is still better than stealing all the wild ones. Hopefully some of that breeding experience can be used to help repopulate at some point.