Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have collected a couple here. Are they useful for reserach, etc?

I have a camcorder on its way to try to film some in action. Talked to a local I know and he said they are fairly common in the Khowst bowl area. Most people leave them alone but there are soem who just kill them and not for meat or skins just for 'fun'.

Another adult has been seen 300m SW of the tent site (Herman and Lily) near the bazaar.

So 7 individuals so far.

They are CITES 1 animals (convention international treaties endangered species) you can’t take any part of these animals dead or alive without official documents, or you are in infraction.

It will be next to impossible for you to obtain CITES permits from exporting country and your country.

rgds

Thanks for the info, I'll just take a zoomed in pic. fecal samples are ok?

Bengal’s are a relatively well known specie, I don’t know how significant a study on this population can be, perhaps D.Bennet or Harold D can enlighten you on what can be of importance.
But for me Bengal’s are not as interesting as desert monitors, not much has been don on desert’s but a lot has been on bengalensis. However you may have an isolated population un-described?

As for feacal's if Daniel asked for some they must be ok to ship, he knows this stuff.
Its possible that blood, saliva and DNA samples be legally shipped also, Daniel should know.

Rgds

This is a relatively isolated population of monitors which has not been studied, so it is of importance. Auffenberg only made reference to this location as one of a few populations found in Afghanistan, which probably made its way up the river valley to from Bannu in Pakistan, where there is a similar population.

Cheers,
Michael

Just ordered a used copy of the book myself.

Anything from a strict muslim nation, any dirt, sand, rocks, etc are considered part of the holyland therefore illegal to leave the country.
Yes according to CITES any part, product, piece, remains of, or live animals their eggs, etc are covered under strict legislation.
They even want you to clean you equipment to remove all or most sand before leaving to pass customs.

Yes, skin samples woul be of great value scientifically.

Unfortunately, the CITES app. I rules cover not just whole animals and their skins, but ANY part thereof (including dried feces). So you would need a CITES permit from Afghanistan to ship even sloughed skin samples.
I am not aware of anyone doing molecular research on V bengalensis at this time. Dr. Donnellan at the South Australia Museum, Adelaide, has quite a collection of varanid tissues, but I do not know if even he can arrange permits.
The CITES structure is the greatest impediment to taxonomic research on monitors at this time.

>>The CITES structure is the greatest impediment to taxonomic research on monitors at this time.

As exemptions have been made for scats and (I think) saliva, it would seem that a credible case could be put to CITES to have all reptile shed skins exempt. There would be no way to try to pass off a skin for a shed so it would be irrelevant to the skin trade.

Has anyone put this forward?

The scientific impact would be tremendous and greatly aid in the conservation of the animals by removing an unncessary impediment to cataloging the biodiversity.

Cheers
Bryan
-----
Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Australian Venom Research Unit,
University of Melbourne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.venomdoc.com

Here are 3 pics from a warrant officer here

Here some pics of Lily, the female. She is about 15 cm shorter and half the mass of Herman. I also got video (quicktime)of her roaming around today. She is way more inquisitive then the male and plays hide and seek with us.

Also I will be getting a copy of male fighting male footage from earlier this year from a guy here

There is a pair that live in the same area and are seen together? How close to eachother would they get?

And are you saying there are others in the area, and the same two live in the same area?

To me, these pics are far more valuable then any skin sample you could provide.

You see, many here do not understand wildish monitors, for instance, they do not understand that wild monitors nearly always have partial sheds, like the above pic. They also do not understand they often sit in the shade and do such silly things like leave their tail out in the sun. Its also interesting that they sit at the mouth of their burrows or with only their heads near the entrance.

Whats going to be very interestin is what will they do as winter sets in?

Thanks for the effort and the pics, I hope you your able to safely take lots of pics. Cheers

They live in the same burrow so I am assuming they are a pair. I haven’t seen them together but others have and I’ll check on pics of them out with each other.

The smaller (female?) seems to be a bit more active as today for example she was out and about from 10 am to 2 pm. As it cools off slightly I expect them t be out more during the day rather then the usual morning/evenings.

Today she was out in full force patrolling the same routes over the 4 hour period. We were able to trail for a bit at about 25’ behind her. If we got too close she would freeze then stroll under some cover while we walked by. Once it was clear she would come out and continue.

Twice she almost came into the tent’s open door. She searched under various tents and large air conditioner units. Between patrols she would rest on the wood over the burrow or under a nearby tree.

Some, hmmmmmmm, most of the academics that have come here say monitors are solitary and or anti social and never never never hang out around eachother.

Of course, I have seen what your seeing, I commonly found many types, from large to very small, commonly in pairs. They the academics, tell me I am wrong. But I know better, as like you, I have actually seen it and not theorize it.

So please keep the pics coming and particularly anything to do with pairs or even groups hanging out.

I find in captivity, varanids of many types seek out and stay with certain individuals.

My bet is, as the weather cools, the monitors will restrict their movements(range) and often gather in groups. If your lucky, the shelter under the tent may provide a nice winter home. Are the tents heated? Boy will they love that. Cheers

The tents are heated and their is also plenty of leaf litter, etc around if they decide to pack their burrows / block them off with items others then soil.

The person thats going to be giving me the male combat video has the pics of them together.

You can also hear at night, them both scrathcing around under the tent together and also some occasional scrambling on the putside plywood flooring preceded by squeaking mice.

Currently they seem to be adjusting time outside and not range but with cooler temps coming I'm sure range will be limited based on a lesser amount of higher temps.

The pics of the juvenile digging in my other thread turned up to be this female of the pair. The one person thought it wasn't an adult due to the mass differences between the two.

What time of year do they mate?

Not sure, my book I got states july/aug for this general area. Now that the book and my camcord has arrived I havent seen them in 2 weeks. It is cooling down now and I expect they won't be appearing for awhile. grrr.