Bayawak, the monitor of the mangroves
A big lizard of Balabac's mangroves and riverbanks, only named as its own species in 2010.
Written from public sources to get this page started. We'll replace it with the story as Balabac residents tell it.
Bayawak is what Filipinos call monitor lizards. The one in Balabac is the Palawan water monitor, a heavy, dark lizard flecked with pale yellow that can grow to about two meters, including its tail.
For a long time it was counted as the common water monitor. In 2010, herpetologists André Koch, Maren Gaulke and Wolfgang Böhme described it as a separate species. It's known from Palawan, Balabac and the Calamian Islands, and from Sibutu in the Sulu Archipelago.
It likes mangrove swamps, other coastal areas and riverbanks. Like all wildlife in the Philippines, it's protected under the Wildlife Act.
If you meet one
- Watch from a distance. A cornered monitor can bite and lash its tail.
- Don't feed it or leave food scraps out.
- Remember that the mangroves where monitors hunt are also crocodile country.
