This lace goanna just wanted to get a bit higher up the wall of this house in Albury, New South Wales.
Does Australia have the most interesting reptiles? Or at least encounters with reptiles? This image circulated last week on social media because it just isn’t really normal to see a giant lizard on the wall of your house. House geckos, yeah, but lace monitors?
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Eric Holland of Albury, New South Wales, was working on his shed when he encountered the lizard.
"I was just doing a repair job in my shed when I opened the door and I saw this huge thing run across the ground and out of sight," Mr Holland told the SMH.
He then went inside his house when he heard something banging on the side of his house. He went out to see what it was and saw the lizard, which he estimated to be about 1.5 meters, crawling up the side of his house. It was the lizard’s tail that was causing all the ruckus that brought Holland outside. Holland quickly snapped a photo of the reptile, the reptile came down off the side of the house and disappeared into the bush.
Lace monitors (Varanus varius) are also called lace goannas in Australia. They can grow to over six feet in length and weigh 25-40 lbs. They are both territorial and arboreal and can be found in eastern Australia, from Cape Bedford on Cape York Peninsula to south-eastern South Australia. They are adept climbers, so it is not surprising that Holland found one up the side of his house, but perhaps a bit unusual, especially given the fact that Holland has lived in the house for 18 years. It is still a neat photograph.
