A 70-centimeter-long Nile monitor lizard that caused anxiety among residents after appearing around walking trails in the Gwanggyo New Town area of Gyeonggi Province has finally been captured after an 11-day search.

According to Suwon City and other authorities, the city and fire services successfully captured the lizard at 11:37 AM today near the stream close to Hongjae Library in Gwanggyo Wellbeing Town.

This comes 11 days after the first media reports emerged on the 11th regarding the appearance of the large lizard.

A worker performing weeding operations along the stream today first spotted the lizard hiding in the bushes and reported it to the fire department and other authorities.

Around five firefighters dispatched to the scene reportedly waited nearby with landing nets, flushed the lizard out of the bushes by disturbing the foliage, and safely captured it.

No one was injured during the capture process, and no outward injuries were found on the lizard itself.

The city plans to send the captured lizard to the National Institute of Biological Resources to go through a final verification process to confirm whether it is indeed the Nile monitor lizard reported missing.

If confirmed to be the same animal, the city plans to hand it over to a man in his 30s, only identified as A, who previously claimed to be the original owner.

Mr. A appeared at the search site on the 11th and stated, "That lizard is my pet that I lost about a month ago."

Nile monitor lizards are primarily active during the day and possess mild venom. They are listed as a CITES Appendix II species (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), requiring individuals to report the transfer and acquisition to the regional environmental office when adopting them.

If it is confirmed that proper reporting procedures were not followed, such as failing to secure related documents, fines of up to 1 million won can be imposed.

Meanwhile, the police have been conducting a preliminary investigation (internal probe) into Mr. A on charges of violating the Wildlife Protection Act.

Now that the actual animal has been secured, the police plan to determine the exact ownership, check for any illegal activities, and consider measures such as formally booking him or imposing fines.

Previously, the lizard first became known when an 18-second video of it roaming around a walking trail deck earlier this month was shared in a resident group chat.

The city and fire authorities had previously conducted searches by setting up seven capture traps baited with raw chicken and requesting a net gun from the National Institute of Ecology.