How monitor lizards in Thailand steal food from tourists (9 photos + 1 video)

Although monitor lizards are certainly not very agile creatures, so they are unlikely to be able to steal food on their own. They went the other way and created a criminal syndicate with monkeys.





A monitor lizard crawls on our things. Thailand. Krabi Province. Ao Nang Resort. Phra Nang Beach. Photo by the author.

The monkeys run along the beach and drag food that is not lying around. In addition, the tailed scoundrels gut bags, backpacks and garbage bags in search of food. And after them, the monitor lizards, leisurely moving their clawed paws, slowly crawl between the beach mats, and even right on them, and shoot their long forked tongues back and forth, looking for something in the sand that the monkeys dropped or didn't finish eating. And sometimes compassionate vacationers throw in some provisions.



A monitor lizard crawls on our things. Thailand. Krabi Province. Ao Nang Resort. Phra Nang Beach. Photo by the author.

To be honest, I always used to think that monitor lizards were found only on Komodo Island in Indonesia. And suddenly, on a crowded beach in Krabi Province - here they are, the beauties, crawling among people and not afraid of anyone.





Monitor lizard in Thailand. Krabi Province, Ao Nang resort, Phra Nang Beach. Photo by the author.

Monitor lizard habitat. What Komodo! They live almost everywhere!



The habitat of monitor lizards. Illustration from Wikipedia.

Another thing is that Komodo dragons are real giants, growing up to 4 meters in length, and on that beach in Krabi province live small lizards only one and a half meters long including the tail.



Monitor lizard in Thailand. Krabi province, resort of Ao Nang, Phra Nang Beach. Photo by the author.



Monitor in Thailand. Krabi Province, Ao Nang resort, Phra Nang Beach. Photo by the author.

Did you know that monitor lizards can swim? These two lizards just had a big fight, apparently over bread territory. It's a pity that I went for a swim in the warm Andaman Sea at that time and didn't manage to capture the performance.



Monitors in Thailand. Krabi Province, Ao Nang Resort, Phra Nang Beach. Photo by the author.

They beat each other with their clawed front paws, standing on their hind legs and leaning on their tails. Finally, the monitor lizards decided that one of them had won. And the loser had to swim away from this abundant beach.



A defeated monitor lizard leaves the beach. Krabi Province, Ao Nang resort, Phra Nang Beach. Photo by the author.

By the way, I didn't lie about the monkeys that are engaged in robbery and plunder on that beach. They sit on the trees, on the sand and watch everything that's going on very vigilantly, so that they can immediately run up to the beachgoer who is about to have a snack. It would seem that the monkey is sitting quietly on the shore:



Krabi Province, Ao Nang resort, Phra Nang Beach. Photo by the author.

And then the girl decided to get something edible from her bag. Look what came out of it: