Varanus macraei
Silhouette: Steven Traver · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
Varanus macraei, also known commonly as the blue-spotted tree monitor and the blue tree monitor, is a species of monitor lizard endemic to the island of Batanta in Indonesia. The species is named after herpetologist Duncan Malcolm MacRae.
The distribution of Varanus macraei is restricted to the island of Batanta, on the northwestern tip of the Vogelkop peninsula of Irian Jaya of Indonesia. Like the other members of the prasinus-group, it is a tree climber, with a prehensile tail. This may be the smallest distribution of any tree monitor, as this island has a size of only 450 km2, comparable with Lake Constance of Central Europe.
The blue-spotted tree monitor inhabits tropical forests that average 28–38 °C (83–100 °F). In the dry season the humidity is around 65%, but it spikes to 100% in the wet season. Reports of a large blue arboreal lizard on Batanta, an island off the northwestern tip of the Bird's Head Peninsula of West Papua, reached Duncan MacRae, founder of the reptile park "Rimba" on Bali, in 2000. MacRae travelled to Sorong and continued by boat to Batanta, where local residents confirmed their familiarity with the animal... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-spotted Tree Monitor sighting in Raja Ampat on a given day, based on 39 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 12th most-seen of the 33 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July, September and November
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-spotted Tree Monitor in Raja Ampat on a given day, against under 5% in February, June and December, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue-spotted Tree Monitor sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Raja Ampat, in our data
Raja Ampat is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Blue-spotted Tree Monitor sightings: about 30% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Varanus
The closest relatives of the Blue-spotted Tree Monitor that you can see in Raja Ampat (genus Varanus, Monitor Lizards) are Mangrove Monitor (about 50%), Peach-throated Monitor (about 20%) and Emerald Monitor (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue-spotted Tree Monitor is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Raja Ampat (39 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
