The Lace Monitor or Goanna

Stripe the Goanna is known as a Lace Monitor because of the pattern on her skin. She lives in the forest and is a very capable hunter eating mammals, reptiles and birds and also eggs and almost anything that is already dead. She has sharp claws and if she is alarmed will quickly run to the nearest tree and climb up high to safety.

Lace Monitors are Australia's second largest lizard and can grow to a length of two metres. They are found all the way down Eastern Australia and across into South Australia. They are oviparous and produce about six eggs to the clutch. The eggs are deposited in small burrows dug into termites nests or in softer ground. The baby Lace Monitors have striking yellow and black bands.

Stripe likes to wander through the forest, sniffing as she goes with her forked black tongue flicking in and out. She looks carefully under logs and sticks her nose into any little hollow that might contain food.