A rarely seen lizard with a "vivid blue tail" has shocked a local tourism operator with a dream sighting in remote Far North Queensland.
Wildlife tour operator Max Jackson spotted the blue-tailed monitor (Varanus doreanus) at a property near Lockhart River and said it was an "incredibly lucky sighting".
"It's a beautiful black monitor with yellow spots and quite a vivid blue tail," he said.
"I wouldn't have hoped in my dreams to come across one of these.
"It [was] just a young animal too, so it wasn't hard to interact with and it was actually a really calm individual."
Mr Jackson said it was his first encounter with the species of rare monitor in nearly 14 years of working in the region.
He said he was filming with clients for a production company when they stumbled across the lizard sitting on a rainforest track near a riverbed.
"I was significantly more excited than the guests I was with. They had no idea what it was," Mr Jackson said.
"I think I had the shakes and everything.
"It was a very exciting moment for me.
"I feel like the sighting that I had with this individual is probably going to go down as one of my best sightings in that region for many years to come."
Little known about 'shy' lizard
James Cook University biologist Conrad Hoskin said he had never seen a blue-tailed monitor and the sighting was "definitely exciting".
"[It is] very interesting because there are not really that many records of this species," he said.
Dr Hoskin said while they were known to inhabit parts of Papua New Guinea, there were very few sightings of the "shy" monitor in Australia.
"It's not endangered but it is rarely seen," he said.
"It's most likely a combination of it being naturally low density … and also in quite a remote area."
He said it would be useful to have more studies done on the reptile.
"It's a poorly known lizard. It's always good to know more about any of these species so we can understand their natural history and distribution better," Dr Hoskin said.
He said Cape York travellers and residents could play a role in expanding knowledge of the blue-tailed monitor and other wildlife in the remote region.
"You can often get close enough to take a decent photo, those photos would be useful," Dr Hoskin said.
"They could be sent to Queensland Museum [which] would be a good place to get them identified.
"Any records from those places would be very useful."
