Origins of large lizard remain unknown

There may in fact be two lizards roaming the Powell High School football stadium.

On Aug. 24, Powell Police Investigator Dave Brown and Officer Chad Miner responded to a report of a large lizard at the stadium (earlier coverage). They reportedly found a three-foot monitor lizard sunning itself on the bleachers. It eluded capture.

On Thursday, however, a Powell resident speculated that the reptile may have actually been her son's smaller, long-tailed grass lizard which escaped this summer.

"We lived directly behind the football bleachers up until 2 weeks ago," wrote Stacey Cannon in a comment on the Tribune's Web site. "About 2 months ago, my son took his long-tailed grass lizard out in the backyard to get some sun and run around in the grass, and the lizard slipped under the fence and we were unable to locate him."

"Long-tailed lizards can reach up to 12 to 13 inches in length in captivity," Cannon said, adding, "I'm not sure how long they can get when out in the wide open world with a buffet of bugs to eat."

But when reached for follow-up comment, Investigator Brown stuck with his original story, rejecting the possibility that the creature he chased was a long-tailed grass lizard.

"It was a monitor lizard," said Brown, adding that as a former monitor lizard owner, he was "100 percent" positive.

"It was close to three feet - not six inches," he said. "This thing would have taken two hands to hold."

For reference, here's a couple photos of the lizard types (taken elsewhere) via the Wikimedia Commons. The top two shots, courtesy W.A. Djatmiko, are of a long-tailed grass lizard. The bottom photo (by Wikimedia user pinay06) depicts a monitor lizard.
Certainly, the two types of lizards do not appear to be easily confusable.

But wanting to be sure the tall tail was no tall tale (and with time to kill on a slow news day), the Tribune contacted another eyewitness -- City Communications & Information Analyst Zach Thorington, who was also on the scene.

"It was something else," he said of the lizard, similarly pegging the length at about three feet. "It was no foot (in length)."

Thorington had been at the Police Station to fix Brown's computer, but was interrupted when a man reported the over-sized reptile.

"We both thought it was total bogus," said Thorington, who expected to find one of the desert lizards common to the area. But the skepticism came to an abrupt end when they set eyes on the multiple feet of monitor lizard.

"I was like, 'Oh my God!'" said Thorington. "You don't see something like that."

He said the creature never allowed police to get closer than 12 feet or so (Thorington said personally, he was uninterested in getting any nearer). Making matters more challenging, the department's cage was in another patrol car and the animal control officer on vacation. After attempts to chase it into some overturned dumpsters failed, the lizard ultimately scuttled underneath a metal ramp leading up to the bleachers.

The police officers tried banging on the top of the metal ramp with batons in hopes of scaring it out.

"If you and I were in there, it would have been unbearable," said Thorington of the baton-driven din.

Unfortunately, lizards don't hear quite as well as people, and this specimen was apparently unfazed -- or at least not fazed enough to scurry from the shelter.

Brown speculated that the monitor was most likely an exotic pet who grew too big for its owner and was set free (which, incidentally, is against the law).

Thorington noted that it's not that unusual for other types animals (even mountain lions) to sneak into town.

"But a lizard?" asked Thorington. "Come on."