The discovery of the new species was announced on April 7, 2010, but has a story interesting
In 2001, he was in a photo taken by a group of hunters a huge black and yellow lizard had not seen before. It was in the Sierra Madre Luzon Island, Philippines. Following these pictures, a group of researchers went to the area and in 2009 found an adult male, need to sequence their DNA and compare it with other species of the same island.
Fact: the large adult male was found because it got caught in a trap of indigenous hunters. These tribes, called Agta and Llongote, decades had been hunting for the reptile to eat his flesh and bitatawa called him, so he took this name.
is related to the Komodo dragon (Varanus genus also), but the Philippine monitor lizard eats fruit and snails. Two meters and lives in trees in forested areas. is unknown condition, but believes they should be very few few copies. It is not known as an animal as large and as striking has gone unnoticed all this time.
Scientists hope that thanks to the discovery of this rare vertebrate (it is becoming less common to find such large animals), to protect the area and therefore all other species living in the same habitat and can also be endangered.
