Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any suggestions on determining the sex of a baby Varanus salvadorii? Is probing accurate at such a young age? The animal in question is 8-10 inches SVL and about 30 inches overall.

Thanks,
Eric
Northshore Reptiles, LLC

Northshore Reptiles

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Northshore Reptiles
2004 Northshore Reptile Show
Saturday July 24 and Sunday July 25
Slidell, Louisiana

I would not attempt to probe as you run the risk of doing more damage then good. I would suggest raising the animal (they grow very fast) and then try to determine as it matures. I believe in considering them female until they become male or stay female...at least, I would consider it a girl until you know for certain that it is a boy. If it is a boy, at some point , he will show you... but be careful because girls of that species will too! -and they are tricky to distinguish if that is your first. Best to you- Mike

As Mike said, they all have the same equipment when young, so a probe will reveal nothing. Before they are sexually mature, they all appear female. They are physically female, maybe not genetically.

So far DNA work has been like what we do now, "guess the sex". A coin flip will be just as accurate. So until DNA is more accurate then a coin flip, its of no use. Of course those folks who made up those DNA tools, say its accurate, but then they never raise up monitors to find out if it did work. Which always leads to this, a method has to work, not just be a method, and that is what went wrong with all the varanid methods, they did not work consistantly(on babies)

Which leads to this, once they are sexually mature(adults) you can tell ten feed away, males can have HUGE hanging down bulges, females do not. Males have different colored eyes, bigger noses, broader chests, narrower hips. on and on and on. But then you need sexually conditioned individuals to see those things.

Sadly, varanids throw us curveballs, varanids practice undeveloped males. Which physically appear like females. Even old individuals can do this. Yes, the males have gonads and females have overies, but they are undeveloped and unfunctional. So it actually doesn't matter which they have. In these cases(he/shes or she/hes) have failed or have not yet got that secondary influx of hormones needed to develop their reproductive organs into functioning units.

Which means, good luck. It will sooner or later become clear, or not. Welcome to the world of varanids. Cheers

I have to disagree with FR and Mike on this one, I find crocs just as easy to sex as the prasinus group, the problem is when you have only one lizard to sex and nothing to compare it to.
These photos show animals of exact same TL they have the exact SVL as babies and as adults, yet there head and tail structure are different throughout there life’s.

Not only this but males show yellow tong thins when baby that becomes even more pronounced when adult.

This is not a case of subordinate or underfed lizards, these have been raised separately in the same condition on the same diets.

no problem with that, I can pick out some and be right. The problem comes with numbers. And doing it repeatedly.

For instance, once Jeff and I picked males from females with my recently hatched whitethroats. We had no problem sexing them, and the ones we kept turned out to be what we called them as hatchlings. The problem was, the nest clutch from the very same adults could not be sexed until 6 weeks of age.

Those croc babies are far older then six weeks, remember I have hatched croc monitors. So I have an idea of what a neonate looks like.

If your saying you can pick them correctly at hatching or near hatching, and expect to be right every time, I will without question challange you on that. But sadly, you will not test that and neither will I.

Also it makes no difference anyway, because the folks asking do not have your or my, experience. So to them, they cannot be sexed.

Heck, I can sex ackies, how many of those asking can? Cheers

Your right on both counts, some of any species cant be sexed correctly (Aphrodite’s?) are they a product of captivity? Maybe these odd monitors have a role we simply cant understand yet?

I don’t really see a need for most keepers to know what sex crocs they have, I posted only because I do see a difference even-though it’s of little value to the herp scene in general.

When ever I choose new monitors I never pick those I can’t sex, probably why I never kept ackies and the like.

They occur in nature as well. If you check the records, many field reports have mentioned males with atrophied gonads. While this was known in north american colubrids, it has never been put into context. It was thought to have something to do with the reproductive season, the problem is, it occurs in tropical reptiles during their reproductive seasons.

One report mentioned finding these males at a certain month, then went back the next year and found normal males.

I also found this in recently imported adult indo species. Cheers