They are thermoregulating and differently than desert type monitors. They go into the warm water and then go bask. As they are drying off- they are cooling off.

If it's the rainy season, they do this often. If it's not the rainy season, they may continue to do this, but the burrows are more dry and they can maintain in them, too.



"one more reason monitors prefer to avoid water if possible is to keep there metabolism going."



So I would think Waters would not avoid water.



Aside from the above thoughts. My experience with waters, they like to put their legs back and slide over mud. Not like a peguin. They are not going for distance. If the cage gets too wet (for me), I'll leave the water dish/tub out for a day. They will slide as if to go in the water dish, but it's not there. Or they will slide into a sleeping spot for the night. They have many options at once and sometime not in the same combination. I can have a dry/wet open spot, dry/wet covered spot, "the above" under a basking bulb or at the low end of the range. Some times they choose the cool mud to sleep on, the water tub, under the warmed board, in a burrow away from the heat. I don't try to duplicate nature, but I think Waters love water as part of their enviroment. I would never set one up like a red ear slider. But because it would like to act like a turtle sometimes, it really hard work to make water a part of it's enviroment.

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