Hi Sam and Robert,

I recieved a new Varanus species in 1994, a solid green V. indicus related unknown species from a friend of mine. She was small, and I learned later normal size for her sex. She preferred shell fish 3x-5x/week. She dropped eggs for me
2x-3x/year like clockwork for 8 years. I talked to many herpetologists and Curators about her; all of them concluded as I did immediately she was/is a new unknown species...one esteemed Curator of a Museum told me to inject (= kill) her; he even offered to do this for me as I said I could not do that to her, or any healthy Varanus. He told me emphatically he would be glad to do this for me, no problem. I declined his offer emphatically as well.

She passed away while I was in hopsital kicking the bucket myself in 2001; I survived while she did not. She is in my freezer now, waiting formal description which is forth-coming, and will NOT be named after anyones wife, dog, breeder/dealer, exporter or any such thing as that. She will be given the name the local people of the island(s) she comes from call her by. I was told that some people have auctioned off 'scientific names' and that was amusing, and I considered naming her after the W.W. II US Naval personell who positively identified her on said island(s) while fighting japanese there....

I too have a problem with finding an animal and then pickling it for scientific merit/holotype right away; I do admire the efforts of Maren Gaulke with Varanus mabitang who captured, observed and released their holotype back into the jungle as they considered them exceedingly rare/endangered. I like that. I also like that V. melinus specimens were collected (not from Obi as depicted!) and kept at the museum as living exhibits - at least that shows compassion for the animals as marvelous examples of Natures Wonders....if I recall correctly, wasn't a lizard found in the stomach of a snake or a goanna that proven to be a holotype or perhaps a paratype specimen some time ago??

I hope the days of collecting every living thing not only in pairs but by the hundreds is not taken as recklessly as it once was...and that with endangered habitats, come endangered species, and that we should not take all of them simply for study sake down the road; furthermore, we should not allow the pet/skin trade to squander off thousands of them either all for the mighty 'yankee dollar' as was done with V. melinus....and we still do not know the ramifications of that fiasco do we!

cheers,
mbayless

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