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The animal on the cover of Site Reliability Engineering is the ornate monitor lizard, a reptile native to West and Middle Africa. Until 1997, it was considered a subspecies of the Nile monitor lizard (Varanus niloticus), but is now classified as a polymorph of both Varanus stellatus and Varanus niloticus due to its different skin patterns. It also has a smaller range than the Nile monitor, preferring a habitat of lowland rainforest.

Ornate monitors are large lizards, able to grow up to 6–7 feet long. They are more brightly colored than Nile monitors, with darker olive skin and fewer bands of bright yellow spots running from the shoulder to the tail. Like all monitor lizards, this animal has a muscular stout body, sharp claws, and an elongated head. Their nostrils are placed high on their snout, permitting them to spend time in the water. They are excellent swimmers and climbers, which allows them to sustain a diet of fish, frogs, eggs, insects, and small mammals.

Monitor lizards are often kept as pets, though they require a lot of care and are not suitable for beginners. They can be dangerous when they feel threatened (lashing their powerful tails, scratching, or biting), but it is possible to tame them somewhat with regular handling and teaching them to associate their keeper’s presence with the delivery of food.

Many of the animals on O’Reilly covers are endangered; all of them are important to the world. To learn more about how you can help, go to animals.oreilly.com.

The cover image is from Brockhaus Lexicon. The cover fonts are URW Typewriter and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag’s Ubuntu Mono.