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Description
The first of many in this series, here I behold the legendary Chinese Dragon Monitor. It’s one of the largest reptiles on the planet since the dinosaurs, weighing around 1700 pounds, and with a height of 9 1/2 when on all fours, and a bipedal height of 11-12 feet; Although it only takes a bipedal stance when battling other dragon monitors over territory/mating rights. A truly imposing, yet somewhat awkward creature, it walks around on its knuckles like a gorilla but usually likes to sit on its butt and eat bamboo like its mammalian panda counterparts. It does this by using its long and deceptively powerful fingers and claws to hold on to bamboo stalks. It has an incredibly powerful bite force that it uses to chew through bamboo chutes and the bones of any small animal it catches to satiate it’s diet such as lizards, snakes, frogs, eggs, and small mammals like lemur rats (although they’re usually to fast to be caught), as well as the shells of small turtles as observed in the wild. It has tough leathery skin like a crocodile and is many shades of green with darker stripes along its back to aid in camouflage. Usually a solitary animal, they only come together willingly during the mating season. Males will use their long powerful arms and claws to push and swing at other males in fights over females. A very rare animal, only two zoos on earth have a dragon monitor in their possession, The National Zoo in Washington DC, and the Beijing Zoo in China. Though there are rumors that the Beijing zoo has come into the possession of a second specimen. There has only ever been one recorded attack on a person and it was at the Beijing zoo on a rookie keeper who went in to give it bamboo. From the perspective of the keeper it seemingly came out of nowhere. He says that he walked in with the bamboo, turned his back to it, and bent down to start spreading it out on the ground. Then it suddenly grabbed him, pulled him to the ground, and raked the keepers back with its claws. It took two keepers to save him; One to drag him out, and another distracting the dragon monitor by spraying it with a hose. No one has found out why it attacked, but other than the keeper (who thankfully survived and still works at the zoo), there have been no other recorded attacks.

Lemur rats are a strange creature indeed. They have the body of a rat, the tail of a squirrel, and the hands of a racoon or lemur. They have taken the same niche as lemurs in madagascar, and resemble them in many ways. But other than that they are truly their own creature. They have opposable thumbs which they use to manipulate objects like food and nest materials. Their diet mainly consists of leaves, berries, seeds, and insects. They have a greenish-tan coat that helps them to camouflage to their environment and avoid predators. Like their namesake states, they are in fact a species of rat.

Sorry if it’s blurry. I don’t know how to make it not blurry

Description
The first of many in this series, here I behold the legendary Chinese Dragon Monitor. It’s one of the largest reptiles on the planet since the dinosaurs, weighing around 1700 pounds, and with a height of 9 1/2 when on all fours, and a bipedal height of 11-12 feet; Although it only takes a bipedal stance when battling other dragon monitors over territory/mating rights. A truly imposing, yet somewhat awkward creature, it walks around on its knuckles like a gorilla but usually likes to sit on its butt and eat bamboo like its mammalian panda counterparts. It does this by using its long and deceptively powerful fingers and claws to hold on to bamboo stalks. It has an incredibly powerful bite force that it uses to chew through bamboo chutes and the bones of any small animal it catches to satiate it’s diet such as lizards, snakes, frogs, eggs, and small mammals like lemur rats (although they’re usually to fast to be caught), as well as the shells of small turtles as observed in the wild. It has tough leathery skin like a crocodile and is many shades of green with darker stripes along its back to aid in camouflage. Usually a solitary animal, they only come together willingly during the mating season. Males will use their long powerful arms and claws to push and swing at other males in fights over females. A very rare animal, only two zoos on earth have a dragon monitor in their possession, The National Zoo in Washington DC, and the Beijing Zoo in China. Though there are rumors that the Beijing zoo has come into the possession of a second specimen. There has only ever been one recorded attack on a person and it was at the Beijing zoo on a rookie keeper who went in to give it bamboo. From the perspective of the keeper it seemingly came out of nowhere. He says that he walked in with the bamboo, turned his back to it, and bent down to start spreading it out on the ground. Then it suddenly grabbed him, pulled him to the ground, and raked the keepers back with its claws. It took two keepers to save him; One to drag him out, and another distracting the dragon monitor by spraying it with a hose. No one has found out why it attacked, but other than the keeper (who thankfully survived and still works at the zoo), there have been no other recorded attacks.

Lemur rats are a strange creature indeed. They have the body of a rat, the tail of a squirrel, and the hands of a racoon or lemur. They have taken the same niche as lemurs in madagascar, and resemble them in many ways. But other than that they are truly their own creature. They have opposable thumbs which they use to manipulate objects like food and nest materials. Their diet mainly consists of leaves, berries, seeds, and insects. They have a greenish-tan coat that helps them to camouflage to their environment and avoid predators. Like their namesake states, they are in fact a species of rat.

Sorry if it’s blurry. I don’t know how to make it not blurry