Gould's monitor

Yellow Spotted Monitor Varanus panoptes and Varanus rubidus and Sand/Gould's/Racehorse and Bungarra Monitor Varanus gouldii

There is a lot of confusion between the Yellow spotted monitor and the Sand/Gould's/Racehorse or Bungarra monitors both with their names, but more in identifying them. Some of their range overlaps and with the differences in size and colourings of juveniles it is very difficult to get a correct identification which sounds strange for such a large animal. Regardless of what name you give them they are a formidable and powerful animal with few enemies once they have reached full adult size (apart from the road and occasional dingo). I have seen these monitors/goannas in the mid-west, Gascoyne, wheatbelt and Pilbara areas. I can not guarantee these are named correctly. So I have shown them here by their locality. Scroll down to see the Sand/Gould's/Racehorse/Bungarra Monitor.

Yellow Spotted Monitor

The Yellow Spotted Monitor is a large robust monitor with two subspecies; V.p. rubidus is redder in colouration and has a yellow tail tip with no banding. (Perentie can also have a yellow tail tip). This monitor will not have any dark or black colouring inside the yellow spots.
Occurs in arid western interior of WA south of Broome across the Pilbara down to Kalbarri on the coast to the north-west coast of Western Australia and Barrow Island in WA. The most eastern distribution might be the Great Victorian Desert in the center of Western Australia.
It likes heavy to stony soils with hummock grasses or acacia woodlands and shrublands.
Digs burrows at base of dense vegetation or beneath boulders. It is ground dwelling.

This is possibly the v.rubidus yellow spotted monitor. It was seen on the side of the road South of Nullagine on Marble Bar Rd. It didn't mind me approaching, it slunk down to look flat then walked off and sat under the dead plant. This area had been burnt out.

Come back soon to see our video of this monitor.

Unfortunately I was just passing through this area and would have liked to stay a few days to photograph all the different monitors.

I also saw large and small monitors at Meekathara on the Great Northern Hwy.

Photographed crossing Marble Bar Rd

This is possibly the Varanus panoptes photographed on Marble Bar Rd in December

This is a closeup photographed on Marble Bar Rd

V.p. panoptes is approx .5m long from snout to vent and the tail is 1.4m long with a dark banded tail tip.
It occupies a variety of woodland and grasslands usually on heavy stony soils of subhumid to arid of northern Australia from the Kimberely in WA across the top of NT and Cape York.
It digs burrows and one monitor may have more than one burrow.

These monitors will more than likely try to bite you if you attempt to pick them up. I prefer to give them space and observe them where they are.
Go here to see a photo of this monitor

This juvenile monitor was seen on the side of the road on the North West Coastal Hwy near Carnavon which is north of Kalbarri in January.

Monitors have forked tongues like snakes. When disturbed they can hiss and stand on their hind legs or flare out their throat.

Other places I have seen monitors/goannas;
Chinamon Pool in Marble bar, a monitor popped his head up the bank took one look at us sitting there and dived back down the bank again. I was here in December.
Just before the turnoff to Karijini National Park from Newman in the Pilbara a goanna ran across the road.
I was surprised at the lack of monitors and reptiles at Millstream National Park in the Pilbara in January.
Cape Range National Park in our camping area (Osprey) on the coast near Exmouth, I saw a monitor walk into camp and pose beautifully on a small termite mound but the camera didn't work. There were many monitor tracks here in the sand.

Sand/Gould's Goanna/Racehorse and Bungarra Monitor
Varanus gouldii was called Varanus flavirufus.

These are all the same monitor, smaller than the Yellow spotted monitors above. Why all the names? Because they are known all over the country by these different names. Here where I live in Perth the name Racehorse goanna would be the most commonly used.

This photograph was taken at Boyagin Rock Reserve off Brookton Hwy in the wheatbelt in January. It sat still for a few moments then bolted off. It was larger than the one seen below.

These are possibly the Sand/Goulds/Racehorse or Bungarra monitors.
There are three different forms to this species; Northern form dark reddish brown heavily flecked with black. This is the largest of the three, sand/gould monitors occurs in tropical woodlands of far north.
Desert form is redder occupies arid interior to north-west coast.
Common or southern form occupies remainder of range brown to almost black dark stripe extends from eye to neck tail has pale yellow bands. The tail length is approx 1.65m

This monitor was see at Tutanning Reserve east of Pingelly in the Wheatbelt in the morning in January. It lay down on the road as flat as it could, I could have picked it up. Then decided to move off the road when I backed away and then going flat again when I approached.

Here you can see the yellow tip tail.

Come back soon to see our video of this monitor

This is the Sand/Gould's/Racehorse or Bungarra monitor it was photographed in the Serpentine area near Jarradale south-east of Perth.

I nearly ran it over even though I was only going 10km/hour as it had flattened down in the grass and moved quickly at the last moment straight into this hollow log just a few metres away. It was curious and would pop its head out about every 10-15 minutes to see if I was still there.

What do they eat?

These monitor use there keen sense of smell to forage for insects, small reptiles, frogs, small mammals and carrion or road kills. A favourite food for all goannas and larger skinks are bird eggs which they skillfully climb trees to steal from a nest or get them from ground nesting birds.

Go to our Hotspots for Thomson Lake Perth to see how we met and who else we met in a chain of events. Fortunately I approached it from the rear as they have been known to run up a human standing still mistaking them for a tree, (so will a Brush-tail possum).

This is possibly the Sand/Gould's/Racehorse and Bungarra monitor it was photographed at Thomson Lake in Perth off the Mitchell Freeway south.

They mate in Spring where the female lays 3-11 eggs in a long hole where she then completely covers it and leaves them to incubate for 169-265 days.

The young will emerge by digging their way out in spring. As you can see here on this young hatchling (on the right) they are more brightly coloured when young.

Here there are three different juvenile Sand/Gould's/Racehorse or Bungarra monitors at different ages photographed at the Armadale Reptile Centre in Perth.

This little one on the left had backed itself down into a cozy hole where it went to sleep with just its head poking out.

This is an older juvenile.

Go to our Tracks, Scats and Bones pages to see a lot more about reptiles and where to find them.

Text
"Reptiles and Frogs of the Perth Region" by Brian Bush, Brad Maryan, Robert Browne-Cooper and David Robinson.
"Australian Reptiles A Photographic Reference to the Terrestrial Reptiles of Australia" by Stephen K Wilson, David G Knowles.
http://home.mira.net/~areadman/goanna.htm