Hanging out with a monitor lizard | Primal Survivor: Extreme African Safari

There's a monitor lizard right there, right on that termite mound, just basking in the sun.

They can either play dead or they can run like grease lightning.

Let me see if I can get a better look at it.

I can see that this monitor could use a little help.

It's actually kind of good that I found you because I'll be real gentle.

Oh, yeah, you're grabbing a hold.

You are starting to wake up.

But here's what I want to do.

See all these? Look at these horrible ticks.

They get these parasites on them, and they just suck their blood.

Let's make your day so much better by getting rid of some of these nasty parasites.

Nobody likes ticks, including myself.

Monitors have powerful jaws that can crush bones and even through hard shells of turtles.

And have special toxins in their saliva that stops blood from coagulating.

This is just a baby.

They can get pretty easily, six feet long.

So, they're the biggest lizard in Africa, and they can defend themselves with those big, sharp claws with a very powerful bite.

You can see those big claws built for climbing trees, built for climbing termite mounds, and built for grabbing a hold of the ground when it's in a dead sprint.

They have a forked tongue that's a lot like a snake, uh.

They can sort of smell or sense the air.

Well, this was a really, really lucky find.

But I'm just going to let you go right where I found you.

(grunts)

Pretty smart lizard.

Cool.