It lives in dry steppe or savanna regions, seeking shelter under tree roots or in burrows during hottest part of day. Generalized food preferences, ranging from reptiles, to birds, to eggs, but consisting mostly of a variety of invertebrates such as snails. Carrion is also eaten. Fed twice a week in captivity. Mating and egg incubation occurs during the drier months with hatching coinciding with the onset of the rainy season.
Sexual maturity is reached at three to five years.
Life expectancy is about 15 years. Monitors swallow small prey or pieces of large prey whole rather than chew it as do iguanas and other lizards. Like snakes, they have a strong bony roof to the mouth which protects the brain from being damaged by the passage of large mouthfuls. They can also greatly increase the size of their mouth cavity by spreading the hyoid apparatus and dropping the lower jaw. Other similarities with snakes are the shape of the vertebrae, the chamber structure of the heart, and the absence of a urinary bladder.