As part of my research into the evolution of venom, we of course have to look at the gila monster (Heloderma suspectum) which meant comparing them to other lizards as well.

Our gila, soooooooo cute. This old soul was the sweetest gila you'd ever meet. Never even an attempted nip out of him. However, gila bites, while not normally lethal, are extremely painful so I wouldn't recommend putting you finger in the mouth of one!

Some of the other other lizards we've researched.

A wild inland bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps). Their pattern is perfectly suited to camoflauge them in their local environment.

A thorny devil (Moloch horridus) crossing the road in Alice Springs.

A sand goanna (Varanus gouldii). These guys are so hard to catch, hence their nickname 'racehorse goanna'.

A clouded monitor lizard (Varanus nebulosus). These animals are a good example of whats wrong with CITES. In Nepal they were virtually wiped out by the domestic skin trade and therefore were listed as CITES I (endangered) and thus a complete ban on their trade. However, in other parts of their huge range, they are extremely common. They are even abundant in over-developed Singapore! If an animal is thriving in Singapore, its obviously not going to go extinct in a hurry. However, because of the listing these animals are not allowed to be traded as freely as pets. This is a shame since they are a very nice tempered medium sized monitor lizard that are very suited for captivity.

Of course, if we are going to be doing any work with lizards, we can't stop until we get to the top, and it doesn't get any higher in the lizard world than the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis). Despite being extremely common in Indonesia, these animals are also CITES I and are not available to private keepers.

For our studies, we needed to collect saliva from the Komodos. As they salivate profusely when feeding, we settled on a simple but effective technique. We just dangled rats above them and collected the drool from their mouths. Too easy.

However, I had just milked a cobra and one of the komodos took a particular 'interest' in me, pondering for the entire time we were in there as to whether or not I was food! I didn't even realise I was protecting the family jewels until we got the pictures back!!

The Singapore Zoo was gracious enough to let us 'milk' their Komodo Dragons. We really apppreciated it. Thanks guys!

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