I do admit that I have never actually wondered if a monitor lizard can climb a tree before. But I was spending a bit of quality time with the pack of 6 semi feral dogs that hangs out on our land to see if I could bribe them with some dog treats into accepting that we are actually very nice people.

Side note: a week ago, it was only 5 dogs. A new one showed up and joined the pack.

Side note #2: actually 3 of them (including the new one) seem quite friendly although still a bit nervous around us. 2 are clearly extremely uncomfortable around people. The last one seems to vacillate between the two attitudes.

Side note #3: I am unsure whether we are actually really nice people, but I’m still hoping that some dog treats will be able to convince them that we are.

Back to the story…

Today only 3 of them seemed interested in the treats, but they happened to be 3 of the least comfortable with me, so I thought I would break up the treats into tiny little pieces and keep them coming back for more. About 15 minutes into this activity, two of the 3 dogs turned around and ran straight into the nearby bushes and I heard the distinct crashing of some very large animal running away.

My curiosity lasted only a short time as I saw a very large monitor lizard climbing one of the old coconut trees on the edge of our land.

A monitor lizard climbing a tree

They are incredibly powerful swimmers and are a common sight peaking their heads above the water when we go boating along the canals near our house. When on land, they kind of waddle like a crocodile. Nonetheless, they can run quite quickly for short sprints, usually towards the nearest brush or canal. I had no idea that they could climb trees. Until now.

Those of you who live in Thailand are almost certainly familiar with these creatures. For those of you unfamiliar with them, they are large lizards which are smaller (and less dangerous) relatives of the komodo dragon. They are generally quite timid but as with most animals, they can be quite aggressive when they are cornered. (Beware the tail as well as the teeth. From personal experience I can tell you that the swing of the tail has the force of a baseball bat when it hits.)

This guy was one of the larger ones I’ve seen. Hanging on the coconut tree like that, he appeared to be longer than I am tall, and I’m about 6 feet 3 inches tall (190cm). I’d guess this guy was over two meters long.

Here are a few more pictures:

For reference, this is an old tall coconut tree. The trunk is about foot in diameter (30cm) and those fronds are probably about 3 meters long.

And here are the two rather small dogs that chased him up the tree: