The Southeast Asian Water Monitor (Varanus salvator macromaculatus) is found in mainland southeast Asia, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

, Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

, and smaller associated offshore islands. Its type locality is Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

.

Background

Local Thai people call it "Tua Hea" (ตัวเหี้ย) or "Tua Ngen Tua Tong" (ตัวเงินตัวทอง). The locals believe that they bring bad luck so they call them "Tua Hea", which literally translates to the bad guy.

Diet

They feed on mainly animals near river sources, such as fishes, frogs, snakes, crocodiles, turtles, dolphins, and sharks. They also prefer farmland animals on special occasions, such as hens, ducks, pigs, and cows.

Habitat

V. s. macromaculatus resides on small river banks and running streams. There has been recent evidence that this species is exponentially expanding its range in the past decade.