Southern Heath Monitor

About the Southern Heath Monitor

The Rosenberg's monitor (Varanus rosenbergi) is an Australian species of varanid reptile found in southern regions of the continent. They are large and fast predators with rugged bodies and long tails, having a combined length up to 1.5 metres, that will consume any smaller animal that is pursued and captured or found while foraging.

They occur in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, where it may be rare or locally common, and more frequently observed in Western Australia, where it is sometimes abundant. The species was first described by German herpetologist Robert Mertens in 1957, named and recognized as a subspecies of Varanus gouldii; a revision of Western Australian monitors published in 1980 elevated the taxon to species status. It is now considered to be a member of the V. gouldii species complex. The holotype was collected at the Stirling Range in Southwest Australia.

The specific name, rosenbergi, is in honor of German naturalist Hermann von Rosenberg. The infrageneric classification of the species allies it to other taxa of the subgenus Varanus (Varanus). A geographically remote population in the eastern states has distinct... Wikipedia →