MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL () 09 July 03 N. Marin farmer shocked by 4-foot lizard (Carol Hunter)
When he first spotted the giant reptile on his driveway May 21, Jerry Corda hardly could believe his eyes.
"There was this thing just lying in the sun," said Corda, a dairy farmer whose parents own the Corda Dairy Farm near the Marin-Sonoma county line. "I thought, 'What the heck is that?'"
The "thing" - captured Saturday by Reptile Rescue of Sebastopol - turned out to be a 4-foot-long Gould's monitor lizard.
Corda said the creature's yellowish green color looked eerily out of place in the golden Marin grassland. "It gave you the idea that this animal is definitely not in its natural habitat," he said.
The rare Australian reptile had been wandering Corda's farm for more than a month before Alan Wolf of Reptile Rescue snatched it by its head from a corrugated drain pipe.
Was Wolf surprised to find a monitor in the wilds of Marin County? Not really.
"I've had monitor calls from Marin to Sonoma," said Wolf, who's been rescuing snakes, turtles and lizards in the area for almost 30 years. "Often, you get them in the neighborhoods."
The reptile certainly looked fierce enough for Corda to keep his distance.
"I wouldn't go up to it, that's for sure," he said. "Just looking at it and knowing it was bigger than anything I've ever seen except on TV, that was enough."
Wolf said that while monitor lizards can bite, they are not dangerous - unless you happen to be an insect, small lizard or rodent.
"If it moves, they'll eat it. They're a top predator," he said. "It would do extremely well until winter, then it would die."
Corda said he thinks the lizard was dumped by someone who didn't want it anymore. Workers even found an abandoned cage and food dish on the dairy ranch property.
On Saturday, while he waited for Reptile Rescue to arrive, Corda followed the lizard for about an hour with a video recorder as it prowled around a manure pond and into the drain pipe. The monitor has been adopted by Classroom Safari, an animal education program.
Corda said he has seen all kinds of animals at his ranch. One year, workers found a baby sea lion in one of their fields. But the monitor lizard is a first.
http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~24407~1502438,00.html
COURIER NEWS (Chicago, Illinois) 05 July 03 Big Asian monitor lizard on the prowl at lake near Benton
Benton (AP): Derek Freeman reported Joanna missing more than two weeks ago.
The 40-pound, 6-feet-6-inch long Asian water monitor made a run for it on June 18 after prying the top of her cage loose.
But residents in the Lake Moses area did not find out about the runaway lizard until Tuesday.
Franklin County Sheriff Bill Wilson said he didn't alert residents sooner because he wasn't sure where the semi-aquatic reptile had fled to.
"We didn't know where it went or even which way it went," said Wilson. "We took the report when it came in, but I don't know what else we could have done."
Dave Cooper got a good look at Joanna on Thursday morning as he walked to a pond behind his home.
"I was walking toward the pond about 7 o'clock this morning when I saw this big head pop up out of the water. It looked like a python almost," Cooper said. "It just stared at me a few seconds and then went back under the water. Its head was probably six or eight inches wide, very similar to a python. I didn't realize what it was right away and then it dawned on me — that's IT!"
Freeman bought Joanna after she and another lizard managed to escape from their previous owner in Florida.
"The male was never found," he said.
Freeman, who lives on Illinois 14 east of Benton, said he doesn't believe Joanna would attack a human, but he's not so sure about small animals.
"I don't believe she would mess with a person, but if anybody has small dogs or cats I think there's a lot to worry about," Freeman said.
Marlene Richardson lives on the opposite side of the road from Cooper and was walking to the small pond Thursday when the lizard suddenly appeared, hissed loudly, then headed back toward the water.
"I'm not amused at all and the nonchalant attitude the owner has taken is irritating, " she said.
Another resident called Wilson's office late Thursday.
"The woman that called with the report said she saw her (Joanna) running down Sam Pyle Bridge Road and then she jumped in Lake Moses and went under water," said Wilson. "There's no telling where she's at now. Lake Moses covers a lot of area."
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/city/e05looseliz.htm
