Monitor lizards need stable forest environment to achieve full ecological functions

KOTA KINABALU: The hardy monitor lizards, popularly known to Malaysians as biawak, though found in abundance across Borneo, are in need of a stable forest environment for them to harness their full biological functions.

Scientists studying the monitor lizards living within the Kinabatangan floodplains and those around the oil palm plantations found that their biological functions were fully fulfilled when they were within natural forest habitats.