Foraging ecology of south-east Asian water monitors (Varanus salvator) in Sabah, northern Borneo, Malaysia

Although three observations are not sufficient to make any concrete conclusions from, when considered with the reported significant declines in biodiversity and abundance of typical prey items of varanids in oil palm estates, they may represent a shift in feeding ecology. Anurans, large and small mammals, fish and invertebrates were all reported to decline in the highest land-use intensity areas compared to forested sites within the same experimental landscape (Wilkinson et al., 2003; Konopik et al., 2015; Gray et al., 2016; Wearn et al., 2017). This decline in abundance and biodiversity of prey species, in conjunction with observed greater abundance, masses and body conditions of water monitors in oil palm estates (Twining et al., 2017), may be indicative of a distinct switch in foraging ecology observed in populations in forested sites compared to those in oil palm estates.