Monitor lizard caught on beach after terrified tourists mistook it for a crocodile
- 7 years ago
Terrified tourists ran from a beach after a monitor lizard was seen swimming in the sea.
Beachgoers mistook the reptile for a crocodile as it glided through the surf on Saturday in Pattaya, Thailand, at 12.30pm.
But the reptile had just wandered away from nearby woodland and was chilling out by taking a dip in the water.
Lifeguards hauled the lizard from the sea before releasing him back into the wild.
The Pattaya Marine Corps measured the creature and said it was about one-and-a-half metres long and weighed roughly 10kg.
Onlooker Warapol Wattana said: ‘’There was a stampede to get off the beach because people thought it was a crocodile.
‘’Lifeguards took the lizard out of the sea and then people and then people were posing with it for photographs.’'
Beachgoers mistook the reptile for a crocodile as it glided through the surf on Saturday in Pattaya, Thailand, at 12.30pm.
But the reptile had just wandered away from nearby woodland and was chilling out by taking a dip in the water.
Lifeguards hauled the lizard from the sea before releasing him back into the wild.
The Pattaya Marine Corps measured the creature and said it was about one-and-a-half metres long and weighed roughly 10kg.
Onlooker Warapol Wattana said: ‘’There was a stampede to get off the beach because people thought it was a crocodile.
‘’Lifeguards took the lizard out of the sea and then people and then people were posing with it for photographs.’'