I think that Monitor lizards are significantly smarter than tegus. There is a lot of evidence which supports this as well, through behavioral observations, phylogenetic analysis, etc..



One interesting study that I am aware of, which I believe involved testing albigularis, if I'm not mistaken, was that researchers were able to determine that V. albigularis can count to 5. To the best of my knowledge(read it a while ago), it involved a room, with a door, in which 5 mice/rats were placed in the room, and the monitor could not exit the room until all 5 rodents were eaten(can't remember of there were more rodents to eat in the next room or not). Once the monitor ate the 5 mice, a door opened, and was able to move on to the next room.



After several trials of doing the 5 mice, the researchers began experimenting with other numbers. When only four mice were placed in the setup, the monitor would eat the 4, and the door would open, however, the monitor would frantically search for the fifth mouse. The same went for 3 mice. Although the door was open, the monitor would not exit the room until it had found 5 mice/rats.



I found it very interesting to read about, and I need to find another copy of that publication, to make sure that what I just said was accurate..hahah.. (well it's along these lines at least...)



There's a lot of interesting studies, publications, surveys, etc.. out there for anyone to read, you just have to put some effort and time into pursuing your interest. Sadly, most monitor keepers and enthusiasts leave their search for knowledge in crappy books or the forums... There's a lot more out there to learn, and if you were a die hard monitor enthusiast, I would think you'd want to learn as much as possible... So my advice to everyone, get out there and look around... There's a lot of really cool stuff to be learned...



There's more to monitors, than 55gallon aquariums and dome lamps....



Cheers everybody,



Bob
TREEMONITORS.COM

[ Hide Replies ]

• Monitor Lizard Intelligence - Aerosmith, Mon Jan 24 00:45:30 2005
• RE: Monitor Lizard Intelligence - lwcamp, Mon Jan 24 09:34:08 2005
• RE: Monitor Lizard Intelligence - varanidfan, Mon Jan 24 10:27:48 2005
• RE: Monitor Lizard Intelligence - treemonitors_com, Mon Jan 24 11:48:40 2005
• So I was a tad bit off....here's an abstract of the study - treemonitors_com, Mon Jan 24 14:19:18 2005
• RE: So I was a tad bit off....here's an abstract of the study - Aerosmith, Mon Jan 24 19:09:39 2005
• RE: So I was a tad bit off....here's an abstract of the study - treemonitors_com, Tue Jan 25 11:33:41 2005
• Though I love beardies, I'd have to agree with you..... - -ryan-, Tue Jan 25 20:28:52 2005
• LOL - Aerosmith, Thu Jan 27 00:31:50 2005
• I remember a study quoted by Dennis King on V. Albigularis.. - SHvar, Tue Jan 25 00:06:11 2005
• look at my previous post for an abstract.... np - treemonitors_com, Tue Jan 25 01:16:25 2005