An exotic lizard was rescued from a Burlington parking lot

An exotic lizard native to northern Australia and the nearby western Pacific islands somehow found its way into a Burlington parking lot, police announced Tuesday.

The lengthy mangrove monitor was reportedly seen running down the road before making its way into the wheel well of a vehicle. A video shows the lizard scaling the tire while flicking its tongue. 

Burlington Police Animal Control announced the safe rescue on Tuesday, writing the call began as a report of a lizard in a parking lot. The agency thanked Cambridge Animal Control and Beverly-based Rainforest Reptile Shows, which is now taking care of the lizard.

“Certainly not your everyday call in Massachusetts,” Burlington Police Animal Control wrote on social media. 

The rescue recalls an escaped monitor lizard named “Goose,” who was loose in Webster for two weeks last August before its capture. 

A video from Rainforest Reptile Shows depicts the lizard getting a wash and his “little velociraptor claws” trimmed. The reptile education organization also applied some ointment to injuries on the mangrove monitor’s neck. 

The mangrove monitor, like most monitor species, is illegal to possess in Massachusetts without proper permitting, Rainforest Reptile Shows wrote in the post.

The lizard, which requires temperatures between 82 and 90 degrees, typically grows between 2.5 and 4 feet and is often found in warm areas around rivers and streams, according to Reptiles Magazine.

“If not captured, this creature would not survive the New England cold weather,” Rainforest Reptile Shows wrote in the post.