Reptilia · Squamata
Varanus albigularisDaudin, 1802
Rock monitor
Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating monitor lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 850 mm snout to vent.
Also called White-throated Monitor.
Reptilia › Squamata › Varanidae › Varanus
- Grows to
- 850mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 16.7years
Longer than 92% of all monitor lizards 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 116.4 to 1,570 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
43 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
- 2019
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 16.7years
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 32.3°C90 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 32.3°C
Slavens and Slavens 1999: 12.75, King and Green 1999: 16.7, 11 years in captivity (Spawls et al. 2018), 17 (Mendyk 2015)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 850mm2 ft 9 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 518mm20.5 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 518.3mm20.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 117.7mm4.75 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 117.7mm4.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 14,985g33 lb
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 24g0.85 oz
max 850 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
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1500m
- Range size
- 8,253,607km²
- Density
- 0–0.01per hectare
- Home range · largest recorded
- 18,300,000m2
Vertebrates (snakes, lizards, tortoises, rodents, birds, Alexander and Marais 2007, Mathesie 2018) and invertebrates and eggs and carrion, insects tortoises and lizards (Branch 2014, see also Kenya Reptile Atlas (http://kenyareptileatlas.com/), mostly invertebrates (Broadley 2008), everything (Conradie 2012), "invertebrates (especially snails together with beetles, orthopterans, millipedes and scorpions) but they occasionally take larger prey such as other lizards, snakes (including puff adders and spitting cobra), frogs, toads, tortoise, birds, eggs, marrunaJs (including hedgehogs) and carrion" (Bennett 1995), "opportunistically preys on invertebrates (), reptiles (snakes regionally favoured), birds’ eggs, birds, and smaller mammals" (Auliya and Koch 2020), everything (van Huyssteen 2023)
(e.g., Kenya Reptile Atlas (http://kenyareptileatlas.com/, van Huyssteen 2023)
e.g., Mathesie 2018, Auliya and Koch 2020, van Huyssteen 2023, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Spawls et al. 2023
Terrestrial and Arboreal (e.g., Mathesie 2018)/mostly terrestrial but can climb well (Kenya Reptile Atlas (http://kenyareptileatlas.com/, Malonza and Bwong 2023, see also Spawls et al. 2023), mainly terrestrial (Auliya and Koch 2020), "equally at home on the ground, on rocks and in trees" (Pietersen et al. 2021), saxicolous and terresrial (van Huyssteen 2023)
widely in low altitudes, very rare abvove 1500 (Kenya Reptile Atlas (http://kenyareptileatlas.com/, 0-1500 (Spawls et al. 2018, Malonza and Bwong 2023, Spawls et al. 2023), 614 (Conradie 2012)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, ZW/ZZ
- Average clutch
- 32eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–51eggs
- Mean clutch
- 24–40eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 1per year
- Clutches a year
- 1per year
- First breeds at
- 48–60months
mean 27 (Du et al. 2014), 8-50 (Kenya Reptile Atlas (http://kenyareptileatlas.com/), 8-50 (Branch 2016), up to 50 (Bennett 1995), 8-51 (Spawls et al. 2018, Pietersen et al. 2021, Spawls et al. 2023), 8-50 (Auliya and Koch 2020)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Anguimoprha
- Subspecies
- Varanus albigularis albigularis DAUDIN 1802 Varanus albigularis angolensis SCHMIDT 1933 Varanus albigularis microstictus BOETTGER 1893
- Described by
- Daudin
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1802
- Type locality
- Unknown
Keeping one
11 ft 2 in × 11 ft 2 in × 11 ft 2 in(340 × 340 × 340 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.
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 2 ft 9 in (850 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 90 °F (32.3 °C).
Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. 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.
1010kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 14,985 g, the heaviest recorded for Rock monitor — 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.
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
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — 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
- — Venomous
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Varanidae
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). Varanus albigularis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/varanus-albigularis
@misc{varanus_albigularis_2026,
title = {Varanus albigularis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/varanus-albigularis}
}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.