A monitor lizard was seen eating a large python near Kallang River in Potong Pasir on May 3, 2024.
A video of the monitor lizard's hearty meal was uploaded on the same day to the Singapore Wildlife Sightings Facebook group by one Emma Robertson Chia.
Chia told Mothership that she is a "snake lover", and has been on the lookout for snakes in Potong Pasir ever since she moved there two and a half years ago.
She said that while she had spotted many black spitting cobras, she had never seen a python in Potong Pasir.
Therefore, she was quite surprised to see a dead python and a monitor lizard when she was walking her dog with her daughter at 5:30pm on May 3 along Kallang River at Potong Pasir Ave 3.
According to Chia, the python "was covered in flies and quite smelly". Chia was unsure whether the monitor had killed it, or if it was already dead by the time the monitor found it.
The monitor lizard, meanwhile, was busy stuffing itself with its meal:
GIF courtesy of Emma Robertson Chia.
Regurgitated its meal
According to Chia, the lizard nearly got to the end of the snake before it "regurgitated the whole thing":
GIF courtesy of Emma Robertson Chia.
Chia told Mothership that this might have been a way for the lizard to slowly digest the snake, such that it could penetrate the tough python skin.
Chia went back home to get a better camera to shoot with. By the time she returned to the scene, however, the lizard had dragged the python up into the vegetation and left it there, making it hard to take clear photos.
Chia nevertheless grabbed a few shots of the lizard with its catch in its jaws:
Photo courtesy of Emma Robertson Chia.
Photo courtesy of Emma Robertson Chia.
Second lizard joins in
On the morning of May 4, Chia went back to the scene and observed that the lizard managed to break through the skin of the python. Moreover, a second lizard had joined the fray, waiting nearby and hoping for a bite:
GIF courtesy of Emma Robertson Chia.
On the morning of May 5, only the tail-end of the python remained:
Photo courtesy of Emma Robertson Chia.
By the evening of May 5, the python was apparently all gone.
Chia was thankful for the chance to witness the circle of life in action. She told Mothership:
"I love our stretch of river! There’s so much life! We have a white-bellied eagle nest, otters, so many monitor lizards, hornbills, cockatoos, kingfishers, parakeets, woodpeckers, spitting cobras … I hope it won’t get developed any further so these creatures continue to have a safe place to live."
Not an uncommon sight
This is not the first time a monitor lizard has been spotted chowing down on a python.
Back in 2021, passers-by looked on in awe as a monitor lizard in the Ulu Pandan canal feasted on a python, before throwing it up and even burping.
In 2020, two monitor lizards were spotted in Potong Pasir, near Kallang River, also helping themselves to a serving of dead python.
According to the National Parks Board (NParks), monitor lizards feed on a wide variety of food types including insects, crabs, snakes and fish.
They are naturally shy, and play an important role as scavengers in biomass decomposition and recycling.
One comment on Chia's Facebook post pointed out that sometimes it can be the other way round, with the monitor being the python's meal.
The user, Przemysław Zdunek, linked a research paper he co-authored on a reported sighting of a clouded monitor being predated by a reticulated python, with pictures of the sighting:
Photo from Przemysław Zdunek and Marcel Finlay.