Malaysian wildlife authorities seized nearly 1,000 monitor lizards as they were about to be flown to Hong Kong where they would have ended up in cooking pots, local media said today.

Wildlife Department officers acting on a tip-off discovered the 999 monitor lizards, which are a protected species, in 70 wooden boxes loaded onto a cargo plane, the department's enforcement unit deputy director Celescoriano Razond said.

All monitor lizards are listed as threatened animals by the UN's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and require permits for export.

The animals would have been sold as exotic cuisine in hotels and restaurants in Hong Kong, fetching prices of between RM20 to RM25 per kilogram, Razond said.

Each monitor lizard weighs between three and five kilograms, making the cargo worth more than RM100,000.

The rescued monitor lizards would soon be released in the country's jungles, he said.