Senses

Sight & Hearing

Varanid eyesight is very acute and sensitive to movement. All varanids are diurnal making good eyesight a helpful tool. Their range varies, but studies done by Walter Auffenberg (1994) have shown that varanids can sense movement from at least 250 meters away.

Varanids have also been shown to recognize each other and handlers and are used in Africa as watchdogs as they can tell apart the people who feed them from strangers.

Hearing in monitors is good as well, though since varanids are rather quiet animals, hearing isn't as important as the other senses.

Smell

Note the deep fork

The varanid tongue does not transport food as in other lizards, but instead is highly specialized for carrying scent particles into the mouth. Varanid tongues are very deeply forked (like snakes) and like ophidians, the vomeronasal, CNS and palate all have evolved along with the tongue to increase chemosensory efficiency.

Smell is very important for varanids, as can be noticed by the deep fork in their tongues. Studies have shown that varanids use their advanced olfactory organs for finding the scent of rotting carcasses. Subba Rao and Rao (1984) discovered that a V.bengalensis could smell a rotting dear carcass from up to 3 kilometers away.

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Auffenberg, Walter. The Bengal Monitor, 1994

Subba Rao, M.V., and K.Rao. 1984. Feeding ecology of the Indian common monitor,Varanus monitor. In D. Marcellini (ed). 6th Ann. Symp. Captive Propogation and Husbandry, pp. 197-204. Thumond. Md: Zoological Consortium.