PROFESSIONAL snake catcher Nick Evans has reminded the public that Nile Monitor Lizards are a protected species, and it is against the law to kill them.
Also read: Nile Monitor freed in three-hour rescue
This comes after two of them were rescued from the roof of a house in KwaMakhutha recently. Evans said a family contacted him and sent pictures of the lizards, along with a Google Maps location pin. He said he was amazed that these lizards had managed to get there and survive as it is a densely populated area.
“The residents were nervous about their presence, although I explained they had nothing to worry about as they were not dangerous. Removing them was an urgent priority. I have seen what can happen to these lizards in densely populated areas – it never ends well,” said Evans.
He and the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Nile monitor researcher, Euan Genevier, headed to KwaMakhutha to recover the animals.
“When we arrived, we walked into the building and soon heard one of the lizards moving between the membrane sheeting and roof tiles. We had been permitted to cut the membrane, hoping to grab and pull them through that. Genevier’s ladder was an unsteady pile of old mattresses,” he said.
Evans got onto the roof and started removing the tiles as Genevier directed him from inside the house.
“We narrowly missed one of the lizards at our first attempt, but on the second attempt, after removing more tiles, we got one and it looked like the smaller of the two. I moved some more tiles, and managed to grab a hold of the lizard after a brief struggle,” he said.
While still on the roof, Evans scanned the area around the building and noticed a polluted narrow stream surrounded by homes or roads. He reckoned the lizards must have moved along that stream from far away.
Genevier collected data from the reptiles and microchipped them for identification purposes before releasing them into a safer natural habitat.
Nile Monitors are protected under the Threatened or Protected Species Regulation of 2007, which falls under the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act of 2004.
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