The monitor lizards are not native, nor did they arrive naturally, unless you think they can make the trip from Africa on their own. It's been documented that the original population was released by people in the pet trade, who wanted to breed monitors in the wild and then capture the babies for sale. This is a common problem here in Florida, and has happened with other species in other locations.

You apparently misunderstand evolution. Ecosystems exist within given geographical boundaries, and the species therein strike a mutual balance over millenia of co-existence. When an "alien species" -- human, or rat, or monitor -- is introduced, it lacks natural checks and balances, causing the entire ecosystem to collapse. Species on the brink -- burrowing owls, for example -- evolve din an environment without large, digging, ground-dwelling predators like monitors, and are likely to be extinguished.

Species generally do not jump ecosystem boundaries on their own -- it takes human stupidity or greed to accomplish that. Forty species of alien reptile have been introduced in Florida, in some cases leading to the extinction of native species. This is not because the native species were somehow inferior -- it is because idiotic people have altered ecosystems in ways that would never occur without human inteference.
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Scott Robert Ladd
1.0.0 Iguana (Rex)
1.1.0 African Giant Plated Lizard (Clyde, Cassie)
1.0.1 Uro mali (Wizard, Dizzy)
0.1.0 Corn Snake (Amber)
0.1.0 Red-Eared Sliders (Emerald)
0.0.1 Musk Turtle (Sausage)
1.1.0 Parakeet (Thor, Zeus)
1.4.0 Homo sapiens (Scott, Maria, Elora, Becky, Tessa)
blog: http://chaoticcoyote.blogspot.com/

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• Meat-eating lizard scares Sanibel - ChaoticCoyote, Sat Oct 1 16:12:19 2005
• RE: Meat-eating lizard scares Sanibel - sungazer, Sat Oct 1 18:43:30 2005
• RE: Meat-eating lizard scares Sanibel - ChaoticCoyote, Sat Oct 1 19:05:09 2005
• RE: Meat-eating lizard scares Sanibel - JPsShadow, Sat Oct 1 22:51:58 2005
• RE: Meat-eating lizard scares Sanibel - ChaoticCoyote, Sat Oct 1 23:48:18 2005
• RE: Meat-eating lizard scares Sanibel - samsun, Sat Oct 1 23:46:25 2005
• RE: Meat-eating lizard scares Sanibel - ChaoticCoyote, Sun Oct 2 00:05:04 2005
• RE: Meat-eating lizard scares Sanibel - reptilicus, Sun Oct 2 11:23:04 2005
• RE: Meat-eating lizard scares Sanibel - beastie, Tue Oct 4 13:59:05 2005
• RE: Meat-eating lizard scares Sanibel - reptilicus, Wed Oct 5 14:36:05 2005
• RE: Meat-eating lizard scares Sanibel - sungazer, Sun Oct 2 13:32:20 2005
• RE: Meat-eating lizard scares Sanibel - JPsShadow, Sat Oct 1 22:53:23 2005