• Question: Now, what is the scientific name for a perentie?

    Asked by bubulis to Aggelos, Andrew, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 14 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Naomi Elster

      Naomi Elster answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      Varanus giganteus

      Varanus tells us that it is a member of the Varanus family of lizards, giganteus is its species. Like its surname comes first, then its own name. And here’s a picture as well: http://www.ausemade.com.au/aboriginal/resources/dreamtime/perentie-goanna.htm

    • Photo: Andrew Jackson

      Andrew Jackson answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      do you mean this monitor lizard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perentie ? Its Varanus giganteus. These monitor lizards are very cool. We actually had one visit my zoology department a few weeks ago. They are huge, with enormous powerful claws. Many of them follow large sick animals likes cows or deer until they fall over and then simply tuck in and eat them alive! Zoologists have also recently discoverd that these are venomous, and they also have nasty bacteria in their mouths that makes their food rot really fast. Perhaps this is to put other animals that might try to steal the dead food from them because the monitor lizards like their meat rotten!

    • Photo: Eileen Diskin

      Eileen Diskin answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      Varanus giganteus! ‘Varanus’ comes from an Arabic word, ‘waran’ that means monitor. And ‘giganteus’ means giant! So it means giant monitor. They called it this because it stands on two legs and looks like its monitoring whats going on around it.

      Some scientists recently discovered that some monitor lizards are very clever, and can ‘count’ up to 6 (they did a feeding test with snails). Maybe this is why they’ve been around for millions and millions of years!

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