"Monitors aren't smart enough to act much differently in captivity compared to how they act/live in the wild... Sure, some of the dynamics are different, but monitors in captivity act very similarly to how they act in the wild."



I'd feel happier if you prefaced these statements with "in my opinion". I presume you've spent a lot of time watching wild monitors to come up with these statements? If so, please tell us a bit about it so we know what you are basing your opinion on.



This has been discussed ad nauseum on this forum and I'm not about to enter the debate/argument/slingfest about it once again, but let's just summarise it by saying that not everyone would agree with you that wild and captive monitors behave the same way. It isn't a matter of how smart they are, but the options available to them. Wild monitors have choices not available to captives (huge amounts of space with numerous choices of basking/roosting sites, mates etc), captives have luxuries not available to wild monitors (consistent food source, consistent access to heat etc). My personal opinion is that these choices affect their behaviour.

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