Their nostrils are slits located farther back on their snouts (closer to the eyes than the nose), and their overall body size is dependent on the available food supply, the time of year, environmental climate, and reproductive state.

Their skin is adapted to the desert environment where they live, and they are excellent swimmers and divers and have been known to enter the water occasionally to hunt for food.

It can be found in Jordan, Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt,[5][6] Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Oman, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran (including the Kavir desert), Pakistan, and northwest India.

Their coloration can be from simple grey (in desert-like ecosystems) to bright orange (in areas with large amounts of plant growth).

[3] It can be found in north Africa (from Morocco and Mauritania east to Egypt and Sudan), the Arabian Peninsula (although appearing to be absent from Bahrain), southeastern Turkey, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

Due to climatic variations, the Indian subspecies has, reportedly, not been observed engaging in hibernation over the winter, but rather decreasing physical activity, becoming lethargic and inactive.

When they resume their normal diets, prey will consist mainly of larger invertebrates and insects, but will also include smaller lizards, rodents, birds, and their chicks and eggs, and various other small vertebrates.

Their olfactory and nerve signals significantly slow down, which severely limit the lizard from either catching potential prey or escaping from predators.

The preferred prey of the species is mice, eggs, or fish, but it will also prey on other small mammals (gerbils and young hares), reptiles (other lizards, snakes, and tortoises), birds, amphibians (toads), insects (beetles, orthopterans, heteropteran bugs, and ants), other invertebrates (snails, centipedes, and scorpions), or carrion, if the opportunity presents itself.

These aftereffects of monitor bites were once thought to be due to oral bacteria alone, but recent studies have shown that venom glands are in the lower jaws of most if not all species.

In humans, envenomation from the species causes nausea and vomiting, dizziness, muscle pain of eventually the entire body, accelerated heartbeat, complicated breathing, and diarrhea, with symptoms appearing after as little as 20 minutes but ending after around 24 hours, although itching of the bite area can potentially persist for two months at least.

[18] Along with assistance in immobilizing prey, the venom contains protease, which is known to cause blood clotting disorders, but also helps to digest food through breaking down proteins.

[18] A great deal of the land previously inhabited by the subspecies V. g. caspius has been turned into farmland, which puts pressure on the species.

[20] A common cause of death in Morocco is the presence of concrete wells used for retaining rainwater, locally called matfias.

The majority of the reasons for the dislike of the species are due to local superstitions; in the Kyzylkum Desert, it is said that they bring unhappiness and disease, cause infertility if they run between the legs of humans, take milk from sheep and goats.

In a study, roughly half of all shepherds interviewed from the region believed that killing seven desert monitors brings absolution of one's sins.

There also exists a more practical reason for the local contempt of the species, as desert monitors do regularly raid hen houses for chicks.

[20] In Morocco, similar superstitions exist; locals believe that they attack and break the legs of camels, and that placing the dried carcasses of desert monitors around homes can deter snakes.