Terry,



Thanks for the reply to my posting. This is the kind of information I like to see - a citing of a definite source and the reasoning behind recommending a certain temperature range. Obviously you're far more familiar with what Schulz has written about the various taeniura spp. than I am. Makes me wish I had that expensive book of his. Anyway, if the Blues indeed all come from montaine regions then they would tend to like it cooler. Still, I'd like to know just how much range they cover as a species. Perhaps they might occur somewhere that is a more hot and humid environment.



On another note along the same lines. A co-worker of mine was born in Taiwan and lived there for a few years and still goes back to see family there. She assures me that Taiwan is much of the time oppressively hot and humid, however cooler in the mountains but not by much. I only keep Taiwan Beauties, so in my case tending to keep them warmer on occasion seems to be okay given what I've seen over the last couple years as I've monitored the weather there, off and on. Also, I've never seen much indication that my snakes were stressing from excess heat, and in fact even on the warmest days they tend to stay up in the "trees" [i.e. the highest branches in my enclosures which are 6' tall].



The interesting thing here is that the taeniura spp. seem to occupy such a large range throughout asia and southeast asia that as a whole you probably can't make blanket recommendations about temps. The main thing I've seen is a lot of people caution about keeping them too warm and are often recommending temps that seldom get out of the 70s - I still think keeping them at temps upwards of the mid 80s is pretty good as a rule and possibly going higher depending on the species.
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Matt Campbell

Animal Keeper, Small Mammal/Reptile House

Lincoln Park Zoo Chicago, Illinois



Assistant Curator

Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm

Lake Forest, Illinois

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