Head to head
Blue Tree Monitor vs Black Tree Monitor
A blue tree monitor and a black tree monitor share a body plan built for life in the canopy, prehensile tail and all, but each one carries a completely different, equally striking colour into a completely different small corner of Indonesia.
| Blue Tree Monitor | Black Tree Monitor | |
|---|---|---|
| Genus | Varanus | Varanus |
| Adult colouration | Vivid blue | Near-uniform black |
| Native range | A single small Indonesian island | The Aru Islands, Indonesia |
| Scientific description | Early 2000s | Earlier, more established |
| Lifestyle | Fully arboreal | Fully arboreal |
| Tail type | Prehensile | Prehensile |
| Pet trade demand | High | High |
| Conservation status | Endangered | Near Threatened |
Blue Tree Monitor vs Black Tree Monitor: common questions
Are the blue tree monitor and black tree monitor the same species with different colours?
No, they are separate species within the same general group of arboreal Indo-Pacific tree monitors, each restricted to its own distinct island range in Indonesia and displaying its own genetically fixed adult colouration, blue for one species and black for the other, rather than being colour variants of a single shared species.
Which tree monitor was discovered by science more recently?
The blue tree monitor was the more recently described of the two, not formally recognised in the scientific literature until the early 2000s, reflecting how remote and rarely visited its single-island native range had been, whereas the black tree monitor's Aru Islands range had been documented somewhat earlier.
Why are both of these lizards so popular as pets?
Both the blue tree monitor and black tree monitor are popular in the exotic pet trade largely because of their unusual and strikingly attractive colouration, blue in one case and black in the other, a demand that has added meaningful collection pressure on top of habitat loss within each species' already naturally restricted island range.