“Parade” captures something visual and specific about monitor lizards: their walk. Unlike many lizards that scurry in short, darting bursts, monitors move with a slow, deliberate, high-legged gait, heads swinging side to side, tongues flicking to sample the air. Watching several monitors move across open ground in the same direction can genuinely resemble a small procession.
That head-swinging, tongue-flicking behavior isn’t just for show. Monitors rely heavily on chemical cues picked up by their forked tongues and processed through a specialized organ in the roof of the mouth, essentially smelling the air and ground for prey, competitors, or mates as they walk. It’s a hunting strategy built into their movement, which is part of why a monitor’s walk looks so purposeful compared to other lizards.
Komodo dragons, the largest monitor species, are famous for this same unhurried, confident gait, made all the more striking by their size.
Example: “A parade of monitors crossed the clearing, tongues flicking at the humid air.”
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