I really like your post, but do have a couple concerns.



I also do not care for the divide and conquer approach to posting. That is seperate each paragragh and approach it without concern how it fits in the entire post, but sadly your post is well written and I only have concern with a couple paragraphs.



You said, I am not just an academic or one that throws around theories. I was also around during the days when little to nothing was known about husbandry, when many of us were learning the hard way of what works and does not work. Over the years, I have worked with many types of reptiles, monitors being a favorite. As you may have noticed, I am rather new to this forum or any forum for that matter, but not at all new in the study of herpetology or the “art” of herpetoculture.



You said your not just an academic, then what are you?? I do not know who you are, yet you seem to think you know who I am(or what I do).

Also you say you worked with reptiles, monitors, etc. Yet many many, in fact almost all here work with them. That really does not define your understanding of them. I know you may not like this, you did not state if you have expressed generations or any success other then allowing them to live. You see, once the basic experience of allowing them to live is achieved, you soon learn that life is more then a heart beat. I use the term "life events" to discribe success. What that tells me is, a monitor is more then teeth for eating crabs(your example) Of course specialize teeth are very obvious and upfront(and important). hahahahahahaha, but they are only teeth. Life events, expresses the true monitor, its behaviors, how it mates, how it chooses a mate, how it lives in its habitat, how it chooses and constructs a nest, how it nests, and how it reacts to others after nesting. These and more are as telling about a monitor species as teeth. Yet you and others, seem to want to teach me that teeth are more important without including these. I fail to understand that, specially from someone with education. I understood the importand of teeth(development of teeth to meet prey types) I understood that many decades ago, but do you understand the importance of the behaviors I mentioned, of course those are only a few examples of what I experience on a daily basis.



Then you said,Success should not just be measured solely in accordance with fastest maturation and growth. Understandably, you measure success in that manner, since that is what you strive for. It is your business to breed captive reptiles, so faster growth and maturation is to your benefit and financial gain; however, it does not lead necessarily lead to greater longevity in Varanus species. To the contrary, accelerated growth rates and maturation have been shown to shorten the longevity of many types of reptiles, most notably Boids. If your experience shows differently, please publish your results! It would be a first in reptile husbandry.



This paragraph contains a false train of thought. Its seems that you are totally refusing that paradigm shift you mentioned.

I use the term and its wide meanings, "Life events" to discribe success, I have used this term for a decade now. You see, life events(hatching, growth, reproduction, old age, death) includes what all wild monitors strive for. It also includes what it takes for monitors to exsist, both in nature and in captivity.



You also state, I do this to sell monitors for a living, this too is total error and misconception on your part. Sir, you are talking without investigating, and that makes you a poor academic, or biologist, or keeper, whatever you are. It matters little to the outcome of some offspring, what matters is the life events their parents expressed. By the way, what would you have me do with all the offspring, give them away, hahahahahaha.



What is surprising is, I am a varanid newbie, yet with my heavy production, fast growth, etc(your paradigm) I have already approached and exceeded many longevity records with my captives, how odd is that. What does that say about your thoughts?



About longevity, I find this term is very naive. It merely means the lenght of time an individual is alive. To me thats sad. If you researched the animals that set longevity records, you may find that the vast majority of them, did not achieve life events, most are males, most are kept without choice of metabolism. That is, they lived a very long half alive exsistance. Also, longevity records are the exception not the normal. Why not concern ourselves with the normal? Also, why aren't any longevity records set by female varanids?



What would be more important is, if the term longevity had one adjective, that is, "functional". A functional lifespan", would be very important to me. I think now that we can allow life events, the term longevity should no longer be important, and be replaced with functional lifespan. Why isn't this included in any books, any what so ever?



I have a few questions for you, with the above in mind, how long is a functional lifespan? for any species, wild ones? captive ones? individuals? species?. Wow, it seems this important area has been totally overlooked, why?



Here is some food for thought, this is above and beyond the old, I have bred this and that to this many generations.



I have a 14 year old ackie. I hatched it.(shes a great great grandmother)

I have a 14 year old flavi, was brought here as an adult(hes a great great grandfather)

I have a lacie that I tracked back 21 years, hes healthy as can be,(hes a great great grandfather).

I have a argus/flavi cross, thats 10 years old and is gravid on her 60th clutch, name any reptile that has done that? (she is also a great great grandmother)

I have a riverbanks zoo, retired female gouldi, that laid 20 clutches in her first two years for me. that was 6 years ago, she is gravid now and still alive(she is a great great grandmother)



It seems your in error on what you think rapid growth and reproduction does to a individual. See what happens when reseachers fail to research.



Have I lost monitors, yes sir. What I learned(aren't we suppose to learn) is keepers errors kill monitors, not their life events. This is something you should learn, thank you, FR



P.S. If you read my post, I recomend a basic diet to newbies, so they can rely on it, that way, they can be concerned with the real problems of keeping monitors, all the rest.



P.P.S. If you really did have experience, you would understand, varanids contain two main problems to overcome in captivity, one is socialization, and the other is nesting. Once real conditions are met, diet is not a problem. They can survive for a very long time, even on a very poor diet, they are indeed survivors.

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