Reptilia · Squamata
Salvator merianaeDuméril & Bibron, 1839
Argentine giant tegu
Photograph by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons
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A ground-dwelling, day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 501 mm snout to vent.
Also called Argentine Black and White Tegu.
Once published as Tupinambis merianae — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Teiidae › Salvator
- Grows to
- 501mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 20years
Longer than 99% of all species in Teiidae anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 52.4 to 614 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
44 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2014
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 20years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 36.2°C
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 35°C95 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 35°C
Britto et al. 2001: an adult survived for 17 years and 3 months in captivity, so I write 20
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 501mm19.5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 347.5mm13.5 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 347.5mm13.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 75mm3 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 75mm3 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 4461.6g9.8 lb
max 501 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Omnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Active season · months of the year
- 7–9months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 920m
- Range size
- 8,025,052km²
- Density
- 0.21per hectare
- Home range · largest recorded
- 89,667m2
(including frogs, Toledo et al. 2007 and other vertebrates, Carreira et al. 2005, see also Colli et al. 1998, Barros et al. 2022), Snakes ?& amphisbaenians (Kasperoviczus et al. 2015), fruit, seeds, arthropods, molluscs, squamates, bitds and mammals (Juri et al. 2015), "invertebrates, eggs, carcasses, plants and fruits (Kiefer and Sazima, 2002; Péres Júnior, 2003; Castro and Galetti, 2004). Small-sized vertebrates, such as mammals with less than 1 kg, were also identified as part of food items of the species (Vitt, 1995; Kiefer and Sazima, 2002; Péres Júnior, 2003; Castro and Galetti, 2004)." - and also Conepatus chinga (Vieira et al. 2018), cactus fruit (Paixao and Venticinque 2020), reviwed in Diniz et al. 2021
Fenker et al. 2020
e.g., Ribeiro-Junior and Amaral 2016, Hatano et al. 2001, Fenker et al. 2020, Srbek-Araujo et al. 2020, Uchoa et al. 2022; in the hottest hours: Ferreguetti et al. 2018
e.g., Ribeiro-Junior and Amaral 2016, Guedes et al. 2017, Barros et al. 2022
5-919 (Uchoa et al. 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 36.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 7–66eggs
- Mean clutch
- 36eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 1per year
- Clutches a year
- 1per year
- First breeds at
- 36months
36 (Fenker et al. 2020), 20-50 (Uchoa et al. 2022)
(Fenker et al. 2020), 20-50 (Uchoa et al. 2022)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Laterata
- Subspecies
- Salvator merianae merianae (DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1839) Salvator merianae buzioensis (MÜLLER 1968) Salvator merianae sebastiani (MÜLLER 1968)
- Described by
- Duméril & Bibron
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1839
- Type locality
- Brazil
Keeping one
6 ft 7 in × 6 ft 7 in × 4 ft 1 in(200 × 200 × 125 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 19.5 in (501 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 97 °F (36.2 °C).
Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
344kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 4,462 g, the heaviest recorded for Argentine giant tegu — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
Morphs
0 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 3 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.
What each pairing produces → · Two genes at once →
- Albinobreeder consensus
No black pigment, leaving a cream and yellow animal with red eyes.
- High whitebreeder consensus
How much white the banding carries and how cleanly it is edged. Selected over generations rather than carried by one gene.
- Leucisticbreeder consensus
White or near-white body with dark eyes — unlike an albino, the eyes carry pigment.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Teiidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Salvator merianae. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/salvator-merianae
@misc{salvator_merianae_2026,
title = {Salvator merianae},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/salvator-merianae}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.