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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.

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12y ago

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