P

eople are not the only ones who may be concerned about getting into shape to meet a potential partner, as it also seems to be the aim of lizards who hope to meet their mates.

The owner of a 1.9-meter lizard named Momon, who grabbed the attention of many during Car Free Day in Central Jakarta on Sunday, said he recently started rationing Momon’s daily food intake to only 1.5 kilograms of chicken every four days because he needed to lose weight to be able to mate with a female lizard.

“He eats 1.5 kg every four days because he is on a diet. He used to eat more than 2 kg of chicken; that’s why he got so long and big like this,” the owner, Dais, said Sunday as quoted by kompas.com. He said he put Momon on a diet because he wanted to mate him with a female of his species.

“I want to release him once he reproduces. I tried to mate him with some female lizards but failed because he was bigger than the female. Ideally, male lizards should be smaller than female ones. So he needs to be on a diet,” said the resident of Rawamangun, East Jakarta.

Dais, who is a member of the Jakarta King Reptile Community, said that he had caught Momon in the Pesanggrahan River in South Jakarta in 2014, when the animal was 90 centimeters long.

“I named him Momon because he is a male. If he was female, I would have named him Mumun,” Dais said, adding that he decided to keep Momon safe from people who catch lizards for food.