TIMOR-LESTE REPTILE & AMPHIBIAN SURVEY
PHASE IV: TAKE ME TO THE BEACH cont.

In the afternoon Hinrich had a report to write so I took all the rest of the team, except Benny who remained with Hinrich, to search along the coastal vegetation and plantations between Tua Ko'in and the jetty about 3 km north. We were especially looking for evidence of a monitor lizard. On a brief visit to Ataúro in 2010, whilst in the country to visit with government leaders, Hinrich had come across the remains of a dead monitor lizard on the beach and located a recently deceased monitor lizard that had been kept as a pet. These were not Timor monitors (V. timoriensis), the species we were familiar with from the main island, so he took samples for DNA and the species went on our priority list. We were now back to try and track it down.

Tuktuk transport	The coastal road
Scott searching in the long grass
Location of the first monitor	Location of the second monitor
Click on images to enlarge

We worked the vegetation on both sides of the road, grassland, coconut plantation, swamp and woodland, and sighted two monitor lizards, the first chased by Laca, the second by Kyle and myself. The first escaped into dense vegetation, the second into a swamp. Although we did not capture either we confirmed by sight that these were larger lizards than the Timor monitor (V. timoriensis) on Timor. They were probably Water monitors (V. salvator), of which we hope to capture a specimen when we next visit Ataúro.