Leaping lizards, critter holds up traffic
Humane society has its hands full with four-foot-long water monitor
It wasn’t a normal call, even for a veteran animal control officer.
The report was about a giant lizard, and while it wasn’t Godzilla, it was big enough to halt traffic in both ways while it crossed Westchester Crescent in St. Catharines. One enterprising motorist snapped a picture and sent it to the humane society.
The image that popped up on Todd Menard’s computer screen was slightly blurry, but he had no doubt about what he was seeing.
“When I looked at the picture, I knew it was a water monitor and potentially dangerous,” said Menard of Niagara Animal Services. “They can be ferocious, and people don’t realize what this thing can do to you.”
Judging by the photo, he guessed the water monitor about four feet long. He drove over to Westchester figuring the sooner he found it, the better.
Menard didn’t have to wait long. Another call had come into the humane society from a resident on nearby Clayburn Avenue. The creature was in his backyard.
By the time Menard arrived, the caller had dropped a big blue storage bin over the lizard. The water monitor’s bite can sever tendons and veins. While its venom isn’t fatal to humans, the bacteria in its mouth can be highly infectious.
The folks at the Lincoln County Humane Society named it Clay after Clayburn Street where it was found.
“He is feisty,” Menard said. “He wants to move around and doesn’t like being confined.”
That became abundantly clear later in the day. The shelter is a temporary facility, so the staff placed Clay in a dog cage. They fed it some fish and turned on a heat lamp.
Clay, however, wasn’t finished with the surprises.
When the staff returned to the
room where it was staying, the cage was empty, though the door was still closed. Clay wasn’t hard to locate, however. The lizard had climbed a stack of containers and was hissing at the staff.
Clay was returned to the cage, but this time under surveillance. It didn’t wait long before it tried again to escape.
The staff watched as Clay used its claws to turn itself on its side and then pull itself between the bars as it flattened out in a bid for freedom.
It was about that point where Menard and his staff were thinking about changing the lizard’s name to Harry, as in Harry Houdini because he is an escape artist. A better cage solved the problem. Clay’s stay at the shelter will be a short one. Water Monitors are prohibited under a city bylaw. They are native to Africa and Southeast Asia and are considered an invasive species in Canada.
The shelter staff has found him a home in Vaughan at the Reptilia Reptile Kingdom, where he will head Sunday.
So how exactly did a water monitor end up crossing Westchester Avenue at noon last Friday?
“There are two ways,” Menard said. “Either someone dumped him, probably in Centennial Gardens because he had grown too big, or he got loose from someone’s home.
“Obviously, we are looking for information anyone might have concerning who owned this animal. We can’t have people dumping prohibited animals in the City of St. Catharines.
“If they have a problem with their animal, they should be calling us so we can figure out how to proceed.
“It was found in a residential neighbourhood in someone’s backyard. We are lucky it was someone who was experienced in dealing with reptiles. It could have found someone working in the garden or a child playing.”