Which animals are unique to Asia? Monitor Lizards and Pangolins. Where can you see them?

In Singapore you can see monitor lizards roaming freely in places such as the Botanical Gardens. (I am glad to say I have never encountered one.) to me, a monitor lizard looks like a small komodo dragon (found on the island of Komodo in Malaysia. You can also see a Komodo dragon in London zoo, in England. A cross between a blown up lizard and a shrunken dinosaur. A very nasty creature. I've seen some horrid videos of komomdo dragons circling an animal, biting it with poison, waiting a day or two, surrounding it, until it drops to its knees and they launch in for the kill and eat it.

Free look at wildlife
Entry to the Botanical Gardens is free. But no guarantee what you will see. You are more likely to see fish and birds. I am glad to say.

Pangolins
This month, March 2019, Singapore Zoo and Night Safari are promoting care of pangolins. I saw an advertising poster beside a bus stop.

Next day I received an email inviting me to the zoo. Children are encouraged to do a series of activities and pledge to protect pangolins and at the end are rewarded with a pangolin pin.

Pangolin, covered in scales from head to toe, curl up into a ball for protection. That's what their name means in Malay.

The pangolin, altogether friendly, has no teeth. On the other hand, it has an enormously long tongue. the tongue is used for scooping out ants. The pangolin eats thousands of ants every year. If you are not a fan of ants, you might give pangolins credit for disposing of ants.

Useful Websites
singaporeair.com
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/make-a-date-with-pangolins?

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.