monitor

I've mentioned before that we have a moat. Well, what would a moat be without a monster?
This is a monitor lizard, spotted in town and chased down by Husband. I hope you can get some sense of scale from this picture--this is an average-sized monitor, about 4 feet long. They can get bigger, though.

There's one really big one that lives near the College of Music. We call it Moatie.

Monitors usually leave people alone and keep to themselves, but it's not too rare to see one walking down the sidewalk or swimming in the moat or one of the other khlongs or ponds on campus. Swimming monitors keep almost their entire bodies submerged--only their heads are visible above the murky water, and they glide along very smoothly like periscopes. Even when they're not in plain view, we know they're there--quiet and graceful they're not, and we'll often hear one crashing along, hidden by tall grass and bushes.