The Bengal monitor is the common land goanna of India and Southeast Asia. It is a large, powerful lizard that forages widley on the ground, in trees, and around and in the water. Its color is tan-brown color flecked with yellow. The Bengal monitor is most active in the monsoon season when prey is most abundant. It inhabits a burrow that it uses for shelter, safety, and for regulating its temperature and humidity. From its burrow, it emerges daily to forage in a wide area about its home base.
It seems odd that such a large lizard subsists on a diet of mostly insects, but that is what the Bengal monitor mostly eats. That is not to say it would pass up a frog, a rat, a cobra, or a nest of eggs if it came across one, but it mostly find bugs and worms. Active foragers like this cannot afford to pass up any meal they find, no matter how small.
Bengal monitors tolerate the presence of humans, often foraging around houses and shops. Their high rate of reproduction and rapid maturation means they can make up for the losses inflicted by people and their pets. The hide of the Bengal monitor is valued as leather and its meat is tasty, but international trade in Bengal monitor meat and hide is illegal in the modern world.
As adults, most Bengal monitors are Medium or Large size, a rare few become Huge.