SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — His name is Archie, and he went on a little walkabout. Archie's adventure lasted about two weeks, ending up — safely — in a media spectacle on the Loop 101 in north Phoenix Wednesday morning.
Such is the life of an adventuresome Nile monitor lizard.
Archie was sited on the shoulder of the Loop 101 near 7th Street Thursday morning, prompting a call out of Department of Public Safety troopers and Phoenix Herpetological Society reptile wranglers to try and, well, wrangle the 4-foot-long lizard.
Archie walked on the freeway and went into a storm drain, where he was found and pronounced "boxed and secure" by the state police.
Archie was reunited with his owner Seth Vancura. It seemed Archie got it into his mind to bust out of his enclosure during a storm a couple of weeks ago, Vancura said. Though gone, Archie was not forgotten. Vancura would see references to Archie being sighted. But the lizard kept giving him the slip.
"It was heartbreaking. The second I realized he was gone, I didn't even know exactly what to do. How do you find a lizard?" Vancura said.
Apparently, it's by ADOT camera.
Vancura was very thankful to the team that ventured out to the busy freeway to retrieve his large lizard.
"He's very big, he's very intimidating, his bites do hurt so I understand avoiding that at all possible -but I do appreciate you guys keeping him safe and not running into traffic so that was huge - just glad to have him back," the owner said.
Monitor lizards are not native to Arizona and average around 3.5 feet in length. They are most often brought here as exotic pets.
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