Monitor lizards’ huge burrow systems can shelter hundreds of small animals
The giant reptiles are “ecosystem engineers," providing a service similar to beavers and seabirds
A sand goanna (Varanus gouldii), a type of monitor lizard, peers out from a burrow entrance in Francois Peron National Park in Western Australia. Such burrows act as refuges for dozens of animal species.
John Sullivan/iNaturalist.org (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Meters below the copper, sun-broiled dirt of northwestern Australia, an entire community hides in the dark.