Mertens Water Monitor
This species is kept at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane where it was photographed. Taxonomic information: I tried to look up if the apostroph most resources use is correct. I believe it is. I believe to have found a reference that the name refers to a person (which is so wrong) with the name Robert Mertens (1894-1975), source http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Varanus&species=mertensi. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to track down the original description for this species. If anyone is happy to provide it for me, it was probably published at: Glauert, L. (1951): A new Varanus from East Kimberley, Varanus mertensi sp. n. In: The Western Australian Naturalist, Perth, Vol. 3, page 14. This document should be scanned and opened for public access. Maybe someone wants to follow up: http://www.wanaturalists.org.au/about-us/publications/journals/journal-indexes-vol-3-4-1951-1955/ For some modern kids: a monitor is not only what you are looking into when playing computer games.
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