16 Bengal monitor lizards hatch through artificial incubation in Bhubaneswar

Balabhadra Pati from the Sathilo village of Balipatna found the eggs and contacted the Snake helpline.
16 Bengal monitor lizards hatch through artificial incubation in Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR: In a first, the Snake Helpline successfully hatched 16 Bengal monitor lizards in the State through artificial incubation. The newly born monitor lizards were released to their natural habitat on Saturday. Snake Helpline founder and Khurda honorary wildlife warden Subhendu Mallik said the eggs that were lying abandoned in a farmhouse at Balipatna in Khurda were rescued on September 5 last year and the eggs hatched after seven months of artificial incubation.

Balabhadra Pati from the Sathilo village of Balipatna found the eggs and contacted the Snake helpline. Mallik then securely collected the eggs. “I was in a dilemma as cobra eggs under normal conditions hatch by September and these eggs neither belonged to cobra or rat snake. However, I decided to keep the eggs at home for artificial incubation and asked my 14-year-old son to keep an eye on them,” he said.

Days and months passed but Mallik had no clue to which species the egg belonged to. “I used torch to candle the eggs and observed blood vessels inside the eggs indicating presence of embryo inside. Finally, in March 2022 while candling the eggs, I could see the head of the developing embryo and guessed it to be monitor lizards. I also found from research books that it takes nine months for the monitor eggs to hatch,” Mallik said.

After 223 days of care, the first baby monitor lizard hatched on April 12. The rest of the eggs finished hatching in the next three days. All the 16 newly born Bengal Monitor lizards were released into a natural habitat in presence of forest staff of Bhubaneswar city forest division. “The eggs would have been damaged without artificial incubation. All 16 eggs could hatch due to optimum care for over seven months which is a huge achievement,” Mallik said.

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