Over 2 m (6 ft 6 in) long and brightly coloured, the world´s newest species of monitor lizard is the northern Sierra Madre forest monitor (Varanus bitatawa), a tree-dwelling species formally described and named in spring 2010 after a specimen was captured in the north-eastern section of the Philippine island of Luzon by a scientific team in 2009. Whereas monitors are usually carnivorous, this new yellow-and-black species is very unusual in that it is a fruit eater – making it only the third species of frugivorous lizard known anywhere in the world.