The specific epithet, bennetti, is in honor of the late biologist Dr. Daniel Bennett and his life-long commitment to the study and conservation of monitor lizards.

However, fossils, linguistic evidence and literary records indicate that the monitor lizards were present on the islands for much longer than expected, and thus likely represented an endemic species to the region, which DNA sequencing has also affirmed.

Their diet consists primarily of the Polynesian rat, insects, and smaller lizards.

Cane toads were introduced to Kayangel in Palau to reduce lizard predation on livestock, and the demise of the mangrove monitors led to an increase in numbers of beetles known to be harmful to coconuts.

[4] Bounty programs in the early 2010s are known to have culled hundreds of monitors in Angaur, Palau.