The following account is from our volunteer, Lim Chin Kah, who rescued a monitor lizard he had found on the highway yesterday.
Last night when I was feeding the monitor lizard, I noticed that it had become more active and stronger. When I took it out from the carrier, it tried to crawl away and I had to put it back into the carrier to prevent it from escaping into the drain. As I didn’t know how and what to feed it, I decided to bring the monitor lizard to the Lotus Life Liberation Park in Bentong this morning to release it back to nature.
It was also an appropriate time because an animal life liberation ceremony was being conducted by Ven Hai Tao, a monk from Taiwan.It took me a while (with help from friends from the Mudita Buddhist Society) to find a good spot to release the lizard. As the monitor lizard hasn’t fully recovered from its injuries, I had to choose a spot where the terrain wasn’t too difficult for it.
In the process of choosing a spot, I slipped and fell several steps down a steep flight of cement staircase. I had the presence of mind to hook my right elbow to a metal bar to stop my slide or else I would have fallen right down to the bottom of the cement staircase and I would have gone back to nature too and wouldn’t be making this report now.
When I finally chose a spot and opened the door of the carrier, the monitor lizard was quite reluctant to come out. I had to carry it out and place it on the ground. Once on the ground, it started to crawl around and surveyed the environment. It even took a plunge into the nearby stream to test the water – it must be so refreshing for it!! But I had to pull it out from the water as I realized the water was too fast flowing for it.I then placed the lizard a safe distance from the stream.
Before I left it, it had burrowed itself into the ground and camouflaged itself with some dead leaves.I am hopeful the monitor lizard will recover from its injuries and will become one of the lifelong residents of the Lotus Life Liberation Farm.
May the lizard be free from harm and danger.
Chinkah
AnimalCare volunteer
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One response to “Back to nature for the monitor lizard”
I forgot to add this bit into the report.
As I was coming back to PJ, I saw the carcases of several animals on the road – a monkey; a cat and another monitor lizard.
These animals had been run over by vehicles.
When I saw the monitor lizard (a much larger one than the one I had rescued yesterday), I had wanted to stop my car to pick it up. But a closer view reviewed that it was already dead. The traffic along that road was also extremely heavy and there was no place to stop the car.
As KahYein said in her book, these stray animals lead a very sad and harsh life. We need to neuter the stray cats and dogs to control the population.
chinkah