14 DAY TRIAL // The world's monitor lizard population is steadily dropping, argues a paper recently published in the journal Herpetological Conservation and Biology.
By the looks of it, these reptiles are often sold as pets. What's more, they are killed and stripped of their skin, which is used to manufacture handbags and straps for watches.
Either way, the result is that wild monitor lizards are bound to soon become a rare sight, Mongabay reports.
Conservationists say that, as their investigations have shown, the monitor lizards inhabiting Southeast Asia are the ones most affected by said trades.
“It is their colorfulness, their rarity value and strong protection status that drives the demand. Quite often four-digit amounts are paid, for pairs occasionally even five-digit sums,” study co-author Mark Auliya says.
The reptiles are also threatened by the loss of their natural habitats, the same source informs us.
Up until now, over 70 species of monitor lizards have been documented by science. Still, some believe that many others are yet to be discovered.