I am very surprised that you find king cobras asocial, iv kept an adult pair together for 6 years, and every time the female nested the male protected here like crazy, none of them ever eat or even tried the babies. I would say kings are very social when in pairs.



As for ritual combat I don’t believe its an act of none aggression, as the victor often tries to kill the other (especially captives) also my observation indicates that ritualise combat only occurs between similar sized monitors, as large males go strait for the smaller monitors without any hiss and puff or any threat display whatsoever.



On a personal note I have seen an adult pair of my Nil’s go thru all the ritual and combat, this lasted intermittently until the female was receptive to copulation. This indicates that ritualised combat is not restricted to males. There’s report of similar combat in wild lace monitor (have photos).



Next I don’t understand why you attack FR on his comments, its clear to me that he wanted other keepers view on ritual combats, no need to stir the pot on this.

And regarding the comment about monitors not wanting to be wet, sorry but its true!



All water monitor species uses water as a tool, it can be to cool down or hunt or avoid predation. To us human keepers this may seem cool and dandy, but to a monitor it’s a matter of life and death, every time they enter water its potentially dangerous, monitors are eaten by fish, turtles, crocodiles, eels, octopus and many water birds, only when they are adults do the risk get lower, one more reason monitors prefer to avoid water if possible is to keep there metabolism going. Its in this perspective that I agree with FR that water monitors prefer a humid but dry cage.



Michael I tot you stayed away from these forums! What’s a matter with you?

I will be in Japan next month hopefully I can visit your shop.



Rgds

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