>>What is the most intelligent Monitor Lizard? Roughly, how do they

>>rank with each other? Are Tegus more smart/less smart/the same?

>>Thanks for your time



Unfortunately, there is no good way to measure what we refer to as intelligence. As a result, there is no good answer to your question. It really comes down to experience with the animals in question, which in turn leads to bias and subjective impressions.



For example, I've heard a lot of people say argus monitors were really, really smart for a monitor lizard. Well, I've had argus monitors for over a decade now and I've seen them do some pretty dumb things. I've also seen other monitors do smart things that my arguses have never done. For example, I had a salvator monitor that could figure out how to go around a barrier to get food. Arguses are too focused to go through the reasoning to do this - they just keep trying to go through the barrier. I think there is a perception that alert, focused creatures are smart, which is why arguses get their reputation.



I once read a statement that monitors were smarter than parrots. I just had to laugh. Having lived with both parrots and monitors, to me there is no comparison. Parrots can do things intelectually that monitors will never be able to do.



Luke

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