Look out—it’s a monster! No, wait—it’s a lizard. Though it is the largest and only venomous lizard found in the United States, the Gila monster leads a pretty slow life for a monster. Living in the desert, it spends about 95 percent of its life lounging in its underground burrow or sunning itself at the burrow’s entrance.
The most active part of the Gila monster’s life is during three months in the spring when it is trying to find a mate and when its prey—eggs and babies of small animals—are most plentiful. An adult Gila monster can eat up to 35 percent of its body weight at one time. That’s like a 100-pound kid eating 35 big plates of spaghetti with meatballs. However, a Gila monster eats just a few large meals like this a year. Once the spring is over, large quantities of food become harder to find. Luckily, because the Gila monster spends so much time resting in its burrow, its few big meals take care of the energy it needs all year. It stores fat in its tail to provide energy when it hibernates in the winter and when there are long stretches between meals. Gila monsters are also known for their ability to control their sugar levels. Through research, doctors have developed a drug from the Gila monster's toxin that is used to help control diabetes.
Though it is venomous, the Gila monster doesn’t inject venom like a snake does. Its venom flows along grooves in its teeth and enters the wounds of a victim as the Gila monster chews. A bite from a Gila monster can be very painful to a human, but it isn’t often deadly.