Ambon Monitor
The dorsal ground coloration is dark brown to black, with many scattered large and small yellow spots, which are arranged to form cross bands. The belly is yellowish-white. The tongue color is dark distally and light proximally. V. cerambonensis has 129-150 scales around midbody. The nostril is situated closer to tip of snout than to eye. The tail is compressed with a double keel on top. it is about 1.3 to 1.7 times as long as the SVL. The total length is up to 950 mm.
Till
now V. cerambonensis is only known from some Central Moluccan islands:
Ambon, Banda, Buru, Obi and Seram. On Ambon and probably on New Guinea V.
cerambonensis occurs sympatric with the Mangrove Monitor V. indicus.
V. cerambonensis inhabits lowland rainforest with adjacent gardens
on Seram. This species further seems to be closely associated with freshwater
streams. Sometimes V. cerambonenssis could also be found in the vicinity
of small human settlements on Ambon.
Stomach content of preserved animals showed that V. cerambonensis feeds on crabs, centipedes, cockroaches, beetles, skinks and reptile eggs.
In captivity this species should be fed with mice, freshwater crabs, big
insects (e.g. cockroaches, locusts), and chicks.
back