This is one of the only two venomous lizards in the world, the other being the Mexican Beaded Lizard (Heloderma horridum). This is called the Gila Monster. And contrary to popular Malaysian belief, no it's not called gila monster because it's crazy (gila in Malay means crazy), but named after the Gila Basin in Arizona.
There are two types of gila monsters- the reticulated gila monster (Heloderma suspectum suspectum) and the banded gila monster (Heloderma suspectum cinctum). Gila monsters eat small mammals, lizards, frogs, insects, birds and bird eggs. They have a forked tongue and a very keen sense of smell to help it track down prey.
Their stumpy tails are for storing fat, in which they use up when hibernating during winter. They are venomous, but not in the sense of venomous as we know- they don't have fangs like snakes, but their venom glands are like our saliva glands. The gila monster is said to use its venom for defensive purposes as most of its prey are small and do not require venom to kill it. Its bite is a brutal half-inch deep one, sometimes tearing the flesh away to let the poison flow deeper into the wound. As brutal and violent as this sounds, the gila monster's venom is not usually fatal to humans, though the bite will cause awful pain.
Despite the venomous bites and crazy name, gila monsters are very beautiful lizards, and in fact, not monstery at all.
Newly hatched babies (they are oviparous) have vibrant and more distinct coloured skin:
