Posted by:
FR
at Sun Aug 13 09:41:11 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by FR ]
A few days ago, I posted a series of pics on the similarities of a montane king nesting and a Pygmy mulga monitor(any monitor).
I posted the results and pics of the gilleni nest, 5 good eggs. So here is the results of the Thayri nesting(L.m.thayri)
She stayed down two days longer then the monitor. The monitor came up immediately after laying. They cave in the tunnell and hide the entrance. The Female snake, stayed coiled around her eggs for two days after laying. She layed her eggs four days after shedding. She laid 9 eggs, three were not fertile. The fertile eggs appear viable. The reason I say this is, Once we hit mid summer here, the room gets to hot to allow viable eggs. The room is great for feeding growing snakes, just not eggs(too hot) In this case, I may have allowed success by placing the nesting cage on the floor, in the coolest part of the room.
Heres the original pic of the nesting box showing the entry burrow.
Heres the female and her eggs under a plate of glass.
Heres the eggs with hatchlings from a previous clutch this season. Funny timing, they hatched the day she laid.
Again, the similarities are striking, mainly because I learned monitor nesting from kingsnake nesting. Of course, kingsnakes can be nested in any old box with any old moist substrate, in captivity. But I compared wild nests to wild nests(apples to apples) As I also developed my kingsnake nesting techniques from nature. Again of course, some elements are captivity added, like the plate of glass, which is suppose to represent the bottom of a large boulder or flat rock. The glass technique came from Mr. Ernie Wagner, back in the mid-seventies.
Monitors are not so pliable as kingsnakes, their range of nesting conditions is extremely tight, compared to kingsnakes. But without question, the same basic type of nests are made by both reptiles.
Why I bring this up is, its my opinion, one reason varaphiles have such a hard time understanding and having success with monitors is, they seperate and isolate varanids as totally different and do not apply standard husbandry techniques. Its my opinion, if they did, they would be far better off.
This also leads to comparing behaviors. Its my opinion, that they're basic common behaviors that span across many species of reptiles. From population dynamics, to similar "social" abilities. Again, the word social is out of place as no reptile is social. So use the word social as meaning when reptiles gather in groups/numbers/colonies, etc, for reasons other then(and including) direct copulation.
My studies with other reptiles allowed me to find monitors doing the same behaviors very quickly. I knew what to look for, I did not have to invent what to look for. I guess I was lucky that monitors did indeed behave much like many of the reptiles I had studied in nature.
The main difference I found was, varanids were very much like other reptile species, just MORE, and faster. They did all the same things, just more and faster. So they were much much easier to find. The colonies were also bigger and closer to each other. Of course that could be a matter of timing. Continued drought vs. continued wet seasons.
Anyway, the wild stuff really means very little. If you think about it, what they do in the wild is only of value in captivity, when your "Not" successful keeping them. If your already successful keeping them. Then what they do in nature is very interesting, but not of great value.
Its this very point, in red, that is completely missed by our academic keepers. Of course, once you have success, it is great if you can adjust your success to meet and include their natural behaviors. But of course its common sense, that you must start at the bottom and work up. You must first, keep monitors alive, then allow lifes basic events, then allow specific species behaviors. Not start at the most advanced or past the most advanced, without ever having basic success. In a simple comparison, they seem to have not gone through the most basic of classes. Like they forgot to go to elementry and high school and started taking third year bio classes. Hmmmmmmmmmmm missing the basics and trapped in the advanced.
The basics of keeping monitors is the same as keeping other reptiles, only if you get it right, more and faster, hahahahahahaha.
Like that was that kingsnakes third clutch and that was the gillenis fifth clutch. Cheers
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 Nesting comparison, update - FR, Sun Aug 13 09:41:11 2006
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