Water Monitors

• Extent of where water monitors live
  
  Found in Northern Australia, Malaysia and Southeast Asia, water monitors (Varanus salvator) can grow up to three meters long, making them the second-largest lizards on Earth. Water monitors spend the majority of their lives in or near the water, feeding off of crabs, shrimp, frogs and fish found in ponds and creeks. Their swimming technique allows them to chase after food in the water, and occasionally, they run after prey on land such as rodents, snakes and even other monitor lizards.
  
  

Body Type for Swimming

• Nostrils on top of their head allow monitors to keep most of their body below the surface of the water. To prevent water from entering into their nose when completely submerged, the nostrils of water monitors seal tightly when the animal swims underwater. Their large lung capacity allows water monitors to swim for great distances, remaining underwater for as much as 30 minutes at a time and swimming far out into the ocean.
  
  

Swimming pattern

• Water monitors use their tails to propel themselves through the water.
  
  A water monitor slips into the water quickly instead of running from danger. It pulls all four of its limbs close to its body. This makes the lizard able to speed through the water. Rather than paddling with its legs, the water monitor moves its tail back and forth as a propeller to swim through the water. Some water monitors walk on the bottom of a body of water to hunt their prey, but most choose to swim underwater instead of walk.