There is no question in my mind that different individuals in a colony have different tasks. For instance, the breeding colonies I watch. There is one individual, big fella, which is a six foot male diamondback(db) On one hill, I have six breeding sites(dens) and thirty or so pair sites. Over the years, big fella has been recorded at most of the sites. He attends the area(females inside) like the other males, Over 25 years of watching him, I have seen many other males copulate with their females, right next to him, but he has never been seen breeding.
When keeping varanids in groups outside here. The big males rarely breed, but they are always out, always the first to investigate any thing new around. Seen that commonly and fit that male is the only male, we receive infertile eggs. Add a small male, back to hatching neonates.

With ethology, that's called naturalistic observation. That is to set up captive tests that express a limited amount of behavior or even one specific behavior. On the otherhand, if you talk to biologist, most will say, captivity does not count, as reptiles are different in captivity. Which is pretty much non sense. As you know, biologist say snakes lay one clutch in nature, but yours have three, so its captivity. Yet you can go catch one and feed it and it has three. Hmmmmmmmmmmm And I may add, on normal years most wild kings appear stronger, more healthy and robust and less fat then captives, so why would they have less??????? The truth is, its not about science, its about the people in science that are no different then people outside science, they are prejudiced by what they read OVER what they observe. Which is non scientific. oh oh, I am ranting. Lets get back to behavior

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