Chris Warrillow

It was on an Air Niugini flight in 1981 when I recalled events of more than 20 years before. I was reading the inflight magazine Paradise (No. 30, July 1981), and an article by Roy D Mackay (then Superintendent of the Baiyer River Wildlife Sanctuary) was titled ‘Dragons’. It described lizards found in PNG. One such creature was Salvadori’s Monitor (Varanus Salvadori), or Papuan monitor, also known as the ‘tree-climbing crocodile’.

In late 1959 soon after I had arrived in Kairuku, on Yule Island, I heard tales of tree-climbing crocodiles that lived in the rainforests on the mainland. It was said that, such was their size, they sometimes captured and ate domestic pigs.

Such ‘native myths’ were, at the time, taken with a grain of salt. There was no easy way to research such rumours. Those were the days before Internet and we certainly did not have any reference library! Communications were unreliable and expensive.

Like all outstations, Kairuku’s only speedy communication with the outside world was by way of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs’ Crammond two-way radio. Outstations were allotted two 10 – 15-minute schedules (skeds) a day in which to send and receive radiograms at sixpence a word or have a pre-booked ‘conversation’ at five shillings a minute.

After leaving Kairuku I soon forgot about those myths and the related stories until I read Mackay’s 1981 article. It, and further research (including the 1972 Encyclopaedia of Papua and New Guinea), revealed that Salvadori’s Monitor was probably the longest lizard in the world. A ‘reliable report’ cites a length of 4.75 metres, but the average length of an adult is just over 2.5 metres. However, two thirds of its body length consists of its tail. It does climb trees and sometimes lies in wait, on a branch, to catch a bird or drop onto prey moving along the ground below.

I had asked my Assistant District Officer, Ken Brown, about these ‘monsters’. He laughed and said, ‘Of course I’ve heard! Maybe the locals are trying to intimidate you, young fella.’ He then went on to relate the following story.

During the first half of 1958 Mekeo speaking people visiting Kairuku from the mainland spread rumours of a child having been taken by a tree-climbing crocodile. It was said that the mother and child were in a garden next to the forest and the mother was cutting down a bunch of bananas. Hearing a scream she turned and ‘saw a dragon run off, into the jungle, with her child in its jaws’.

In May 1958, Cadet Patrol Officer Ian Gibbins conducted a routine census patrol of the Bush Mekeo Census Division. In addition to issuing written Patrol Instructions, Ken Brown verbally instructed Ian to investigate the rumours and in any case find out as much as possible about these strange creatures.

Ian left Kairuku on 14 May and returned on 3 June. He questioned people closely at every village and became convinced that some sort of large dragon did exist. However, in regard to the missing child he was always told that it had occurred ‘in the next village’. He was unable to obtain any reliable evidence in regard to the matter.

During his stays in villages and whilst walking from one to another, Ian asked to be shown where these creatures had been seen. A number of sites were inspected and on a couple of nights he was taken to places in the jungle where one might be found—but without success.

One night, during the last week of his patrol, Ian went to bed on his canvas bed-sleeve (bed seil). It was very early morning when, tucked between two sheets, he felt the dragon which had got under the mosquito net and was clawing at his neck. Despite the darkness he could see its mouth and sharp teeth inches from his face.

Issuing a shriek and suddenly fully awake, Ian grasped at his throat and grabbed a tiny mouse exploring the hairs of his lower neck. 

Author’s Note: Unfortunately, the activities of Malaysian loggers in the forests of southern PNG are causing loss of habitat. This, along with smuggling of captured creatures for the overseas pet-trade market, is leading to the Monitor’s demise.