A newcomer to Australia, waitress Samia Lila earned some Down Under cred recently by dragging a large lizard through the restaurant dining room and out to the balcony.
Lila, who is from France, was working at the Mimosa in New South Wales when a patron pointed out an intruding creature. The waitress at first thought it was a dog. When she realized it was a goanna — a predatory monitor lizard, 4 or 5 feet long — she matter-of-factly grabbed it by the tail and wrestled the wriggly creature back outdoors.
Turns out that an anecdote her boss had told her had given Lila the impression that was how everyone deals with goannas. She now has a nickname: Goanna Girl.
This particular lizard, by the way, was about middling size for a goanna. Some can get up to 8 feet long, while others are barely a foot.
