Hello Tom,



We are always excited to visit! I have been following the tree monitor post and those blues- just as in person, are breathtaking. We have completed the winter enclosures- they breed in these and I collected two infertile eggs from my youngest pair. They are Merauke "Yellow-noses" and appear to be gravid again she has a comfortable nest that she dug out- we will see! As You and FR had stated they are very social and I would say to the extent that in our captive enclosures each of our three males is always with the female and I believe the males running circles around me while the females remain perched may be some sort of defensive behavior of her. The first time this happened, I happened to be barefoot and wet out of the shower with a towel wrapped around and tray full of dead rodents in hand- this was very unnerving because I thought that my bare feet and rodent smell had sparked a feeding response. Well, as he circled my feet very fast, I was dancing like a bully scene in a Wild West movie out of the enclosure! This happens often now( not the dancing! haha!) and does not excite me any more. Messing with the nest while they are in with you can be down right dangerous. Also, males will jump on you to get past you and mine are fast like an argus. They will eat food that is not out of your hands. We now throw in a couple morsels then bring in the mass on the tray. Also, they have been PVC trained just as all the REAL crocodiles and alligators that You kept- this has help with big monitors alot... If someone is well initiated with big cobras, forest cobras are a little different than the rest. I find this to be so with croc monitors. Anyone wanting to get into them should start with a young male for experience. Many people don't understand that many of these animals will not readily pair up with others and you should have equal space to seperate them if needed- Complex Social Structures- and what I have written is only the tip of the "iceberg". We'll have to catch up in person when I get a break from work (We all had the swine flu here and are getting back up to speed). We send our love and miss You, Patty, Bruce and Friends- Mike & Mary

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