In my neck of the woods, the only type of lizards you have to worry about seeing are tiny green anole lizards that you don’t even realize are there most of the time.
With that being said, I couldn’t imagine living in a part of the world where you see lizards so big, that you could just about put a saddle on those things and ride them into town.
Seriously, what are you gonna do when you come across a massive lizard that’s staring you straight in the eyes?
That’s a dinosaur. I don’t care what anybody says…
And one of those species of the lizards are the monitor lizard.
Of course, these things are indigenous to Africa, Asia, and Oceania, but I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that the people who live in this part of the world just casually see these creatures casually crawling around, and just go about their day.
However, they’re very real, and they can be very intimidating when they feel threatened.
The monitor lizard is known for using its very strong tail to scare or slap predators away.
Here we have yet another example.
As you can see in this video, a family of otters begin to swim around the creature, as they’re looking to take home dinner at the Bishan Park in Singapore.
And by the way, otters are savages… I’ve seen them take a snapping turtle and rip it to shreds, I’ve seen them attack dogs and even people… they might look cute and cuddly, but they’re killers
However, the monitor lizard isn’t having it, and begin to fling its tail at them, and it’s easy to see that none of the otters want the smoke, even though the lizard is greatly outnumbered.
The caption explains it all:
“Both otters and monitor lizards are often sighted at the Bishan Park, Singapore. This is an unusual encounter when a group of playful otters decided to check out a rather big monitor lizard on a morning in Jan 2023.
There were 2 monitor lizards initially. They usually are not sighted together. One of them swam away. This particular lizard stayed put. It seemed that the otters were checking the lizard out.
They would leave intermittently to hunt for fishes or join the big group of otters, but they would return to check out the lizard. As for the lizard, it seemed to stand firm to defend its ground.
The otters eventually left the lizard alone.”
Check it out:
River Otter Mauls Snapping Turtle
Add this to the list of things I didn’t know were possible.
Everyone knows otters are some of the most adorable creatures on the planet.
They splash around, swim super fast, play with beach balls at zoos, and are just plain old cute.
But did you know those same cute creatures are capable of taking out a gnarly, tough as hell snapping turtle?
Turns out, according to sciencing.com, river otters are actually the apex predator of their food web, feeding on fish like trout, salmon, carp, and suckers, as well as other water creatures like snails, crayfish, frogs, snakes, and yes, turtles.
Guess I’ve been underestimating these guys for years…
Well, what lead me to this information was a video from a few years back, where a person noticed some crunching sounds coming from thick weeds near the edge of a lake. When they saw an otter’s head pop up, they immediately knew what was going on and ran to their house, grabbed a camera, and raced back to the lake to capture this insane video.
We first see an otter seemingly minding its own and swimming around, but it quickly becomes clear that there’s something nearby that he doesn’t like.
It was a snapping turtle, and a pretty big one at that.
Now, if someone was to have paused the video and asked who I thought would win in a fight, it would have been a clear and fast answer of the snapping turtle. Do you see the neck and jaws on that monster?
But, as with most things, I would have been wrong, as the otter continually charges the turtle, flips it over, and eventually is able to get a hold of it and drag it across to shallower water. Once it has the turtle in place, it begins munching on its intestines, apparently a favorite of the animal we all thought was so cute just a few minutes ago.
Wild. Just wild…
Next time you see an otter, keep your distance.
We don’t need to see what else they can take out…
