Talk about a lounge lizard.
An Asian Water Monitor lizard — the second largest in the world — shocked an Arizona man when it took an uninvited swim in his backyard pool.
“It almost sounded like a baseball jumping in the pool,” Peoria homeowner Eric Johnson told Fox 10.
Johnson said he was doing yardwork when he heard a giant splash, and turned to see a lizard doing laps his pool.
“All the sudden it pops up, this giant lizard swimming across the pool. I didn’t know if it was venomous, if it was going to attack me,” he said.
The homeowner kept his distance from the lizard, which he at first took to be a snake, but caught the Asian Water Monitor on camera.
The lizard proceeded to climb out of the pool and sunbathe, Johnson said that he took his unexpected guest to be friendly.
“So it seemed like it was sweet and friendly and it kind of just laid there, but I wasn’t trying to go test that theory, you know,” he said, “I figured it was some type of, you know, half-land, half-water animal because he looked pretty comfortable.”
The scaly swimmer eventually climbed up a tree and left Johnson’s yard, but the Arizona homeowner said it looked like he had fun.
“He looked happy swimming in the pool,” he said.
Asian Water Monitors can grow up to seven feet long and weigh up to 90 pounds, they’re native to areas in Southeast Asia such as China, Thailand and Vietnam.
Alex Roszkowski, the Reptile Manager at Phoenix Herpetological Sanctuary told Fox 10 that while Asian Water Monitors don’t typically attack people, they can be dangerous.
“They’re not gonna try to actively attack somebody necessarily, but if they feel cornered or threatened in some way, they do have very sharp teeth, and very sharp claws so they can and will defend themselves,” he said.
Roszkowski speculated that the lizard was somebody’s pet that got loose, since they aren’t native to the state.
