Monitor lizards are usually large reptiles, although some can be as small as 12 centimeters in length. They have long necks, powerful tails and claws, and well-developed limbs. Most species are terrestrial, but arboreal and semi-aquatic monitors are also known. Almost all monitor lizards are carnivorous, although Varanus bitatawa, Varanus mabitang and Varanus olivaceus are also known to eat fruit.[1][2] They are oviparous, laying from 7 to 37 eggs, which they often cover with soil or protect in a hollow tree stump.[3]
| Monitor | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Varanus albigularis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Suborder: | Scleroglossa |
| Infraorder: | Anguimorpha |
| Superfamily: | Varanoidea |
| Family: | Varanidae |
| Genus: | Varanus Merrem, 1820 |
| Species | |
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Search for missing runner to resume this morning
POSTED: 11:24 p.m. HST, May 16, 2011
After 10 months in Hawaii, visiting Norwegian engineering professor Are Hjorungnes wanted to celebrate Norwegian Independence today.
Now many in Hawaii and Norway are hoping that today will be a day to celebrate if 40-year-old Are Hjorungnes, who disappeared while running a Mokuleia trail Saturday, is found.
Fire and police search teams will resume the search this morning for a third and final day.
Hjorungnes disappeared 9:45 a.m. Saturday while on a mountain trail run, which started in the Peacock Flats area with a group of about eight ultra runners organized by H.U.R.T. Hawaii (Hawaiian Ultra Running Team).
Cheryl Loomis, an ultra runner with H.U.R.T., was on the run when the group took a water break near the top of the ridge.
Hjorungnes and another man, who were faster runners, "took off in front of us, and he took a wrong turn," she said.
Nina Fasi, honorary consul of Norway in Honolulu, said she's been contacted by his friends, Norwegian newspapers, TV stations and magazines asking for news of Hjorngnes. The Norwegian media have been running stories about his disappearance, she said.
"His childhood friend said he is a very responsible and in good shape and into sports and athletics," she said, adding that he is thinking about coming to Hawaii to help in the search.
She informed officials at the University of Oslo, where he is a professor, of the news. They, in turn, notified his family.
Hjorungnes contacted her by email to ask if any celebration was planned for May 17, Norwegian Independence Day. She called him back Thursday to tell him she was going to a celebration last Saturday and that he could go with her.
"He picked up the phone, and I heard a couple of hellos and the phone was disconnected," she said. "I never heard from him again."
Sunday, the Honolulu Police Department sent out seven search dogs and their handlers, eight Specialized Services Division members and a helicopter to find the missing man yesterday, said Caroline Sluyter, an HPD spokeswoman.
Fire Capt. Terry Seelig said protocol for the department is the search continues for three days. Seelig said after two days of searching extensively on and off the trail network several times from the air and on the ground, there have been no results, no indicators of where Hjorungnes might be.
The network of trails include jeep and hiking trails as well as pig trails.
The Fire Department used its helicopter to do aerial searches and to lower rescue specialists by rope into ravines and where the tree canopy obscured the view from an aerial search, he said.
The University of Oslo professor was doing research and collaborating on research projects with faculty at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's electrical engineering department during his one-year stay, coming to a close in July.
Professor Tony Kuh, chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering, said Hjorungnes knew some of the faculty at UH-Manoa and wanted to work with them.
"He's a nice guy, a smart guy and athletically very fit," he said. "He seems to enjoy life, challenging discussions, doing physical things too, hiking, different things. It's just a real shame that he's missing. I just hope they can find him, that he's OK."
Kuh said Hjorungnes was researching signal processing, which is theoretical in nature. He had written books on looking at complex matrix theory, Kuh said, adding that matrices are complex arrays of numbers and functions. "When the calculus was developed for this, they weren't right, so he developed some of the calculus to take derivatives and do operations with these complex matrixes."
Hjorungnes was single from a town in northern Norway called Trondheim.
Mike Minch, who was not on the Saturday run but has helped organize a group of about 18 to 20 H.U.R.T. runners to help search for the missing Norwegian for the past two days, said Hjorungnes and the other runner, a military man, were both new to the group.
The two headed off together running downhill, which typically takes a half hour, but somewhere along the way the two parted, which is not uncommon, Minch said.
He "figured people are behind me. If he ran into a problem, they'll find him," Minch said.
When he didn't show up at the bottom and the rest of the group did, they went back up not more than half an hour later, but found no sign of Hjorungnes.
Minch said Peacock Flats is a 15-mile run with "Intense" ups and downs. The first section, the Kealia Trail is 800 feet of switchbacks, then 1,200 feet of jeep road. They stopped for water at about the 2,200-foot level, and after which it is mostly downhill.
"He probably took a wrong turn," Minch said. "Once he took that wrong turn, he was in a hurry to get to the bottom," he said.
It may have taken some time for him to realize he took a wrong turn and "didn't want to take the time to go back on the trail," he said.
He said, "You can actually walk along an animal trails and not realize it's not a human trail. You can go on a pig trail for a long way until it ends, and you realize you're out on a ridge somewhere."
Runners usually travel light and "some new age runners they carry barely enough water to make it," said H.U.R.T. runner Don Fallis.
"It's very disturbing for us because we run out there," he said. "There's someone running out there every weekend."
He said he and others, who use the Peacock Flats run, have speculated Hjorngnes "may have tripped and started sliding off."
"My guess would be he got lost, might have panicked, and he could have gotten hurt," Fallis said. He suggested it was a combination of being lost and getting dehydrated, resulting in cramping.
Minch said: "This isn't the first person who's been hiking in Hawaii who has got himself in trouble. I see the potential for it with tourists almost every time I go on the trails."
COMMENTS
- why aren't the National Guard helping? From what I remember, they know that there are man eating lizards in the area, especially in Mokuleia...........and, do you have a history of missing hikers over time from the area?.......or he probably fell in a crevice.............takes a special group of people to locate him..........and with his intelligence, who's to say he was not kidnapped? Just pointing out some things........has anyone checked the area that the waters went rushing thru during the storms? the area overlooking Mokuleia Beach? It's absolutely criminal to not locate him......because that part of the Islands isn't very big........keep the dogs close by for everyone's safety.......sadly, man eating lizards or hungry carniverous pigs can be reasons for an injured person's/his demise......hoping for the best....find him please............aloha.
- Could some one please correct me if I'm wrong...
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Don't the rescuers make the same money if they are at the station house reading the paper or out searching for people? Wouldn't the main additional cost would come from fuel? Fuel that’s burned all the time in dry-runs?
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What I don't get is how people say it costs so much to rescue people but I'm assuming that these rescuers are the same people that work 4 day shifts at the firehouse getting paid the whole time fire or no fire, rescues or no rescues.
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Does it take additional personnel or do the stations just donate specialists when the time comes?
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I really don't know the answer to this so if you got some facts, please share. - He probably has no water, no whistle, no flashlight, no laser pointer, no signal mirror, no cell phone, no lighter, no reflective space blanket (about the size of a musubi and weighing just ounces), no orange surveyor's ribbon, no hunter orange, and no lightweight polypropylene thermal underwear/skull cap/socks/wool liner gloves. All of which can easily fit into a mini-fanny pack. He probably only has a moisture absorbing pure cotton tank-top or t-shirt, running shorts and shoes. I don't care who you are or how great of shape you are in, if you are going any further than shouting distance into the woods you'd better be prepared to face the elements.
- Amen to that.
- Come on.... Running on hiking trails, what's next night swimming in big surf?
- Running on Hawaiian trails is reckless and demonstrates a complete lack of personal responsibility. As an experienced hiker, I would not recommend this type of activity on any Hawaiian trail. If you want to run, go to a track or park. This individual and his group should be held financially liable for all costs currently absorbed by taxpayers for this search.
- course we sholud pay whaterver it takes to find him, its a life we are talking about here. i bet u wouldnt have said this if it were u in some need of help in the future. Håper Are er i livet og at de finner han før det er forsent! tankene går til familie og venner i norge og på hawaii.
- Didn't realized we evolved from running in parks and tracks.
Hikers should be held to your standard of taxpayer financial responsibility. Seems like hikers are rescued every week. - Well put luv2hike! I think emergency services are tax monies well spent, but in cases where a person(s) may purposely put themselves or others in harm's way it becomes a burden/liability. There are a ton of ways our tax monies are allocated and spent that don't yield productive and positive results.
And it does seem like hikers fall into bad situations often, not saying that it's necessarily their faults, but just looking at it from a statistics standpoint...wouldn't you agree Livinginhawaii? - Ok I would agree with that. We are seeing incidents quite frequently now and I don't like seeing rescure personnel being put in danger over someone simply being ill prepared or reckless. Many of the recent incidents are due to this an I object to these incidents being funded by the taxpayers. I think there should be some form of review to determine if financial responsibility is required. I dare say if that were the case, hikers would be better prepared and less willing to climb beyond their means...
- Fair enough ;o)...I still think it's tax money well spent when it comes to saving human lives. Taxed income should come back to taxpayers in ways that positively serve the public.
On the other hand, I agree that there should be reviews of liabilities in place to hold responsible those people who knowing and willingly placing themselves in situations which may endanger their or other peoples' safety or lives. But in reality this will never be possible.. - You know, I don't respect comments like this. By all means, you are free to speak your mind like everyone else, but to condemn an individual/group's actions without fully knowing exactly what happened is not right. Do you know without a doubt that his missing status is due to his "running" on Hawaiian trails? Where you there at the time to witness any sort of reckelss actions or "complete lack of personal responsibility"? If you were, then I retract my comments. If not, maybe your should join in the search or wait at the scene until they find the person, then you can immediately tell him that he and his group should be held financially liable for the grief and tax money this has cost you. Maybe you should think about this should you ever need help in an emergency situation.
I sincerely hope that this person is found safe and alive. - I hope the guy is found as well. The article said he was running and so my comment hinged on that activity. If more information is discovered I would certainly retract much of my comment.
- That's great! A human life in possible danger is what this was all about. Should the end result turn out positive for all, then it would be fair to seek better explanation for what occurred. I respect your civility, and willingness to see it from a different perspective.
- How does running on trails "demonstrates a complete lack of personal responsibility"?
So since you're an "experienced hiker", what trails have you done? - It is certainly your prerogative to disagree with me. I have completed all public ridge and valley hikes on Oahu, more than 20 private land hikes and the military’s East Range. Our volcanic rock does not adequately support traditional mountain climbing techniques and for this same reason, running on our trails can be extremely dangerous to the point of being reckless. Whether hiking with a friend or group you need to plan and prepare accordingly. Group leaders need to ensure the safety of inexperienced members at all times. If this is not done and you run into trouble, you put risk on those who are sent out to perform a rescue. Putting others at risk due to your recklessness is an example of lacking personal responsibility. There was a time on Oahu when you would hear of a rescue every 8 or 9 months. This is now becoming quite frequent at extremely high cost to the taxpayers. I do not believe the taxpayers should be liable for poor planning, poor group leadership or reckless individual actions.
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