A Gila monster is one of the few highly venomous lizards in the world. With a blunt snout, and a stocky build, it is slow-moving, and spends most of its time in hiding. Gila monsters eat invertebrates, eggs and nestlings of birds, and small mammals, as well as other reptiles. They live in the deserts of the American Southwest.
The scientific name of the Gila monster is Heloderma suspectum, and the animal's common name is pronounced 'HEE-la'. Its skin is covered in rounded, pebbled scales in an attractive pattern of orange and black.
The venom may be dangerous to the elderly or to young children, but is not deadly to healthy adults, though certainly extremely painful. It is a haemotoxic venom similar to that of a rattlesnake. Gila monsters have no hollow fangs to inject venom, but the venom is secreted into their mouths from their large venom glands, and they bite, hang on, and chew to work the venom into the wound.
Gila monsters are not especially aggressive animals, and some captive breeders specialize in working with them, though they should certainly be kept only by experts. They and their cousins, the beaded lizards, were once considered to be the only venomous lizard species in the world, but it is now known that some monitor and agamid lizards also produce venom, albeit much weaker venom.
The Gila monster and beaded lizard are still the only lizards known to have a clinically significant venom. They are 17 to 24 inches long, and weigh generally less than 5 pounds.
Gila monsters are legally protected through most of their range, and their conservation status is 'near threatened' due primarily to habitat loss. There are 2 subspecies.
yes
We could build a gila monster sanctuary.
Yes. The "Gila" in "Gila monster" is capitalized, but not the "monster" part. The Gila monster takes its name from the Gila River Basin in the southwestern US where the Gila monster was once found.
the gila monster is black and orange ?
Gila monster was created in 1869.
The Gila Monster is located in the United States.
The Gila Monster is a reptile in the Southwestern USA.
The Gila Monster is of the order Squamata.
No. A Gila monster is a vertebrate, specifically a reptile.
No, there is no antivenom for Gila Monster venom.
The Scientific name for Gila Monster is Heloderma Suspectum.
The Gila Monster gets its name from two things. Gila comes from the Gila River, which runs through the range of the Gila monster. They are called "monster" because they are very large, somewhat strange looking lizards.