A smart monitor lizard visits a market stall to ask for food three times a day.

The baby reptile was once given a fish at the meatball and fish shop in Samut Prakan province, Thailand, and it has been returning to the spot every time it is hungry.

Footage from June 4 shows the juvenile lizard crawling at the back of the middle-aged woman's shop before being fed a mackerel.

The animal bit the food and dragged it under a pickup truck to enjoy it away from the customers, which shop owner Pa Daeng said was a sign of its shyness.

Pa Daeng said: ‘The baby monitor lizard comes to my shop every day to ask for food. Sometimes I give it fish, other times, I give it egg.

‘It would accept whatever I give and whenever there are customers it would drag the food to eat alone.'

The animal lover added she liked to feed the monitor lizards whenever she sees them around her shop.

Pa Daeng added: ‘I have been doing it for a long time. I once fed a monitor lizard until it was bigger until one day it did not return.'

The shop owner also said the baby monitor lizard was playful. She said: ‘Sometimes when I am sleeping it would nibble on my feet to wake me up when it is hungry.'

Asian water monitor lizards normally live in canals, swamps, sewers and ponds in cities in Thailand. They feed on fish, snakes, frogs and scraps of food left by humans.

The reptiles are aggressive when threatened and have a mildly venomous bite which sometimes carries harmful bacteria. The Godzilla-like reptiles are also a protected species in the country so their population thrives.