Rediscovering a Lost Dragon

I was idly watching cable TV one lazy Sunday afternoon when I flicked the remote control to the Animal Planet Channel. What caught my attention was the feature on a rare monitor lizard known only to exist on Pollilo island, off the west coast of the Luzon mainland. It is clearly on the brink of extinction.

A biologist and nature conservationist Daniel Bennett, is on a mission to capture on film, for the first time ever, the elusive Butaan in the wild, a native monitor lizard related to the Indonesian Komodo dragon. The lizard is extremely shy, spending most of its time up in the canopy, or treetops, and rarely ventures to lower ground to forage for food, and only for a few precious minutes each time. Not much is known about the lizard on account of its habits. Its reproductive habits, its nesting places, for example remain a mystery to scientists. In fact, only a handful of the local people have ever seen the animal.

Relying on local trackers, as well as a support group of Filipino biologists and conservationists, Bennett’s team ventures into the jungle carrying state-of-the-art camera equipment. The lizard is extremely sensitive and mindful of its privacy. It will stay at the treetops for weeks on end if it feels lower ground is unsafe. Its keen sense of smell allows it to detect the slightest intrusions. It has complex warning signals in place which alerts other lizards to steer clear of a particular place, mainly by leaving behind a warning scent. Bennett’s team had to disguise and cover its cameras with ground mulch so as not to drive away the lizards.

The shoot required extremely careful planning which involved examining the animal’s droppings as well as bark scratches and trunk markings on its main food source, some palm tree variety endemic to Polillo.

Filming such an elusive creature required a lot of patience. Not until the mounted camouflaged cameras almost ran out of film did the team hit scientific pay dirt: in its full glory, the elusive lizard appeared shorter and darker than the local bayawak, or common monitor lizard found in Southern Luzon and which occasionally ends up in the exotic restaurants of Laguna. It possesses very powerful jaws, which allows it to pry open the extremely hard palm fruit.

What is astounding is the lizard’s spatial sense of moving in a straight line. It seems to navigate the forest floor using this scheme and pass the mapping information on to the other members or its species, you know, their way of sending text messages.

What I found fascinating as well was the fact that the cycle of life is fully in force here: the seeds from the fruit are indigestible even when it ends up as lizard poop, thereby distributing the seeds of the tree to other locations, much like the pollinating bees that drop the flower seeds to other places. A rare gecko can also be found living off this tree, dependent on it for food and shelter. The palm variety is supposed to grow mostly in coastal areas. The fact that the tree can be found in the jungle, inland, means the lizard holds the delicate balance of maintaining the life force of the tree and the animals that depend on it. You destroy one and the rest goes with it.

Unfortunately, this is the Philippines and you can bet your bottom dollar that bad news is just around the corner. The team got hold of a lizard rescued from illegal trappers and released it afterwards. The lizard’s diet is very limited, and it is almost certain that collectors of endangered species from all over the world who buy the Butaans will only end up with dead lizards anyway. In fact, despite tough laws against illegal trafficking of endangered species in the country, it is a sad fact that it is rarely enforced.

Bennett’s team is on a race against time to save this endangered species by capturing it on film, and hopefully bring its plight to the world’s attention. (I got to learn something about its Indonesian cousin, the Komodo dragon in the 90’s comedy hit, The Freshman starring Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick). Illegal logging and land clearing operations for farming are driving these creatures deep into the forest. The further loss of habitat may further drive them to extinction.

The support team of a few dedicated Filipino biologists is expected to carry on documenting the plight of these shy creatures. The team had to devise ways and means to carry out the research without the benefit of high-tech equipment. It is another sad fact that it took a foreigner to spearhead the campaign to save the Butaans.

I once saw a clip on TV where a deer hunter, who was bragging about his hunting skills to a friend, was mauled by the shocked deer instead, if not for a lucky break. I was clearly rooting for the deer. It is all-too-often said, that we are stewards of this earth. Let us allow and help other creatures flourish as well. After all, we are all a part of this great eco-system, the cycle of life. (Play theme music from the Lion King).