HIGHWAY snake catcher, Nick Evans received a very unusual call on Wednesday, March 2 to remove a very large monitor lizard at an office in Westville.

The very large lizard was spotted by a lady working at the Westville office.

“She went into her office, and immediately smelt something bad. She went and sat at her desk, heard something move, and looked down. There was a very large monitor lizard,” explained Evans.

According to Evans, Nile monitor lizards are common around Durban, although many are lost to the muthi trade, to dogs and occasionally cars too.

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He said they are not dangerous but advised people to not try to catch them. When Evans arrived, the lizard was behind a cupboard, pressed between the cupboard and the wall.

“Such a strange sight. I tried getting it out of there, and it dropped to the floor, then bolted across the room. Fortunately, it had nowhere to go. But that doesn’t mean this was going to be an easy catch, monitors are fast, and will try to bite, scratch and whip to defend themselves,” he said.

After chasing it around for a while, as it caused some havoc, Evans cornered it behind some wires. The lizard was over a meter and it was released later in a river, in a nature reserve.

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