Reports of a large reptile roaming an eastern Connecticut town over the past few months have turned out to be true: A police officer shot a monitor lizard to death as it was attacking chickens at a resident's home.What's lacking is any mention of the "large" lizard's size. It could be a foot long, it could be hundreds of feet long, as far as the article is concerned. AP doesn't bother to tell us.
The story caught my eye because I recently watched a NOVA episode about monitor lizards. It was called "Lizard Kings" and it was really interesting. They're apparently quite smart. One researcher went so far as to refer to them as the "primates of the lizard world". They can count. You can train them. And they even respond to affection, sort of like a dog. Amazing. Anyway, it's weird to hear about one of them roaming freely in the US. Undoubtedly a pet fiend bought one, got bored and at some point let it loose.
Don't let your pets loose, kids. Especially when they're dangerous, aggressive animals.
Image: Bengal Monitor (Wikipedia Commons)
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