The Emerald Tree Monitor is a large lizard that can grow to around 3 feet in length. While large for a lizard, this is actually quite small in comparison to other monitors.
This lizard also goes by another common name, the Green Tree Monitor. These vibrant colors help the lizard to blend into the background of their natural environment.
Emerald Tree Monitor Taxonomy
The Emerald Tree Monitor belongs to the Varanidae family of lizards. This family contains only one genus of living lizards. There are two extinct genera associated with this family, Ovoo and Saniwa.
The remaining genus, and the genus that the Emerald Tree Monitor belongs to is called Varanus. This is essentially the genus of Monitor Lizards, which are native to Africa, Asia and Oceania.
The closest living relatives to the lizards in the Varanus genus are the species in the anguid and helodermatid genera.
The lizards in the anguid genus are native to the Northern Hemisphere and include the glass lizards and the alligator lizards.
There are only 5 species of lizards in the helodermatid genus and they are all venomous. This family includes the Gila Monster.
Monitors are a large genus of lizard that contains over 80 different species at the time of writing. However, many species and sub-species are constantly being disputed so the exact number will change from time to time.
The group of Monitor lizards include some of the largest species of lizards in the world such as the Komodo Dragon and Crocodile Monitor.
The genus name, Varanus is derived from the Arabic word ‘waral’ which simply translates into Monitor.
The scientific name for the Emerald Tree Monitor is Varanus prasinus. They were first described by John Edward Gray in 1831.
The word prasinus is Latin for green. As mentioned earlier, they are also referred to as the Green Tree Monitor.
Emerald Tree Monitor Description
The Emerald Tree Monitor is a large species of lizard that can grow to over three feet in length including their tail. While this is quite large for a lizard, it is actually quite small in comparison to other species of monitors.
The tail of this monitor is around twice the size of its body so a 3-foot lizard will have a body that is roughly 1 foot long and a tail that is around 2 feet in length.
They can vary in color from dark green to lime green. They even sometimes have tints of blues coming through. They have dark brown or black crossbands running across their body and tail.
They have a long slender body and a prehensile tail which assists with climbing by stabilising them among the branches.
They are perfectly adapted to climbing with long sharp claws that grip onto tree bark. They also have enlarged scales on their feet which also assists them while climbing.
Natural Habitat and Distribution
The Emerald Tree Monitor is native to the island of New Guinea, but they can also be found on some of the many smaller islands that surround it.
This large island is divided into three separate regions, West Papua, Papua and Papua New Guinea.
West Papua and Papua are both provinces of Indonesia. West Papua is made up of the two Western peninsulas of the island while Papua is made up of the rest of the Western half of the island.
Papua New Guinea is an independent country and is made up of the Eastern half of the island. The Emerald Tree Monitor can be found in both Papua and Papua New Guinea.
We couldn’t find any accounts of specimens found in West Papua but they may still be found there. There is a mountain range separating West Papua from the rest of the island so it is also possible that they have not reached here unless introduced.
They can typically be found in Palm Forests, Tropical Evergreen Forests, Swamps, Coco Plantations and Rainforest habitats where it is warm and the humidity levels are quite high.
They live in a part of the world that has a huge diversity of different reptile species. They share part of their geographic distribution with a wide range of other reptiles such as the Bismarck Ringed Python, Blue Tailed Monitor, Blue Tongue Skink, Boelen’s Python, Crocodile Monitor, Amethystine Python, Mangrove Monitor, Mourning Gecko, Peach Throat Monitor and the Pink Bellied Side Neck Turtle. However, some of these reptiles may have different habitat niches.
Behaviour
The Emerald Tree Monitor is one of the few social Monitor lizards. They typically live in small groups of a couple of males and females with one of the males taking the role of the ‘dominant male’.
Emerald Tree Monitor Diet
The Emerald Tree Monitor will eat a lot of insects that they find in the trees. They will also come down to ground level to find food on the forest floor.
Besides insects, they are known to feed on a variety of other animals including small mammals, rodents, birds, frogs and even smaller lizards of different species such as geckos.
