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While you wouldn’t fish over common house geckos on parking lot walls, even the toughest of us would be surprised if we stumbled upon a huge monitor lizard lurking on a stairwell.
Which was exactly what a resident of the Buangkok Edgeview HDB property found on Tuesday (October 13) afternoon.
Abdullah Muhammad alerted his neighbors on the farm’s Facebook group page about the unexpected sight at 997 Buangkok Crescent, a multi-story parking lot.
As this is a recently established build-to-order estate located next to Kampong Lorong Buangkok, the resident believed that the colossal reptile had escaped its habitat near Singapore’s only surviving traditional village. Though it was also likely to have been lost after veering off the nearby North Eastern Riverine Loop.
Before heading to the parking lot, the monitor lizard was seen wandering in front of My First Skool in Buangkok Edgeview, making a mess in the kindergarten garden in the process.
In a later update to his post, Abdullah uploaded a video of a rescue operation conducted by the wildlife rescue group Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES), in which volunteers and police officers shoved the scared reptile into a cage before taking it away.
https://www.facebook.com/585363943/videos/pcb.4549841668423656/10158978165513944
AsiaOne understands that the National Parks Board (NParks) had been alerted to the case and referred it to ACRES for extraction.
“The animal in the photos and videos is a water monitor lizard. They are commonly found in Singapore, especially near green spaces and bodies of water such as canals, ”Kalai Vanan, ACRES Deputy Executive Director, told AsiaOne.
“They are often mistaken for Komodo dragons. Water monitor lizards are shy animals that often feed on carrion, frogs, fish and other small animals. “
NParks advises members of the public not to touch, chase, or corner the creatures when they encounter them in the wild, as they can attack in defense. Although the venom that lizards secrete is not fatal to humans, the main cause for concern would be bacterial infection from bites.
