The Iguana 🦎 | The Land Monitor | Iguana

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Varanidae
Genus: Varanus
Subgenus: Empagusia
Species: V. bengalensis
Binomial name
Varanus bengalensis

This large lizard is mainly ground-dwelling, and its length can range from about 61 to 175 cm from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail. Young monitors may be more arboreal, but adults mainly hunt on the ground, preying mainly on arthropods, but also taking small terrestrial vertebrates, ground birds, eggs and fish. Although large monitors have few predators apart from humans who hunt them for meat, younger individuals are hunted by many predators.

The Tamil word for monitor lizard is udumbu, but this refers to the land monitor (thalagoya), and there does not appear to be a separate word (or at least one which is commonly used and understood) for the kabaragoya.