Varanus salvator (Laurenti, 1768)

Grismer, L. Lee, Youmans, Timothy M., Wood, Perry L., Jr & Grismer, Jesse L., 2006, Checklist Of The Herpetofauna Of The Seribuat Archipelago, West Malaysia With Comments On Biogeography, Natural History, And Adaptive Types, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 54 (1), pp. 157-180 : 172

Varanus salvator .

– Varanus salvator (or the tracks thereof) were observed on 31 islands ranging in size from 0.01–110 km 2. The presence of this large, top predator on small, isolated islands relatively far out at sea suggests monitors are periodically swimming to them because there are not enough resources on these small islands to support permanent populations of the large carnivores. We observed a 2 m specimen on P. Tokong Belalai (0.01 km 2) where the only conceivable food source were terns and their chicks and eggs. On another small island, P. Layak (0.24 km 2), we observed the tracks of V. salvator near a large circular depression in the sand where it had been digging up sea turtle eggs. We suggest that V. salvator have knowledge of the food resources on these islands and make periodic visits to exploit them.