Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Let's see where do I start. Well, a week ago my female albig. began showing signs that she would lay soon So I seperated the male from her since he was stressing her out. So I moved him into a seperate enclosure inside the house while I cleaned out his temp. enclosure outside. Well today he manages to escape from the enclosure inside the house, he then manages to get inside another one where I house a pair of savannahs. He did no harm to them, although he attempted copulate with my female savannah. He is roughly 6 feet, and my savannah female is about 3 feet. I removed him before any real damage was done but it amazed me how interested he was in her. Well, just wanted to share this little odd expirience. Maybe some other albig. breeders could inform me if that cross is even possible. (do think I would ever try it.) Just curious. By the way my pair of savs have shown copulation over the last couple years but never any eggs. Well, I apologize for the long post, I hope everyone has a good one.

Rudy

Thats not suprising. I do remember seeing a few years back a picture online of a supposed sav, albig cross. But I do not know if it is for real or not. I have also seen a salvator cross salvadori online as well.

Good luck with the female albig.

I don't have the desire to try the cross. I have my hands/life full with the other monitors I am breeding. Thank you, this will be her second clutch in two years. Needless to say I messed the last clutch up. Let's see how much a mistake can teach a person. Funny you mentioned the salvator/salvadori cross. I have been raising a pair of salvators that I hope will breed next year, and I always wondered if anyone tried that cross. (but who knows for sure right?) Thanks.

Rudy

Hi Jody,

The salvator x salvadorii cross was a salvator outcome - I have two of three of those babies in alcohol here, and their breeding notes as well. Although I am convinced the fellows thought they got a cross, the babies after are salvator, no doubt about it.

For V. exanthematicus x V. albigularis, it might be possible???
Their windows for breeding are similar (August - Feb.) for both male and female. They might encounter one another in N.E. Africa (Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya) - I would like to know more thats for sure...

cheers,
mbayless

So a varanus exanthematicus x varanus albigularis is plausible? Does anybody know somebody that has tried to prove this in captivity? I couldn't believe my eyes earlier today. My male albig. responds that way to the one female albig. that should lay anytime now. I have another female that he completely ignores, and another he would tear apart given the chance. (again) Then I find he responds well to a sav. Who would of guess. Well, Frank is right of course about letting monitors choose their partners, although I would have never suspecting that my albig. would chose a v.exanthematicus over other albigs. For all I know if in the same situation tomorrow, my albig. would not react the same.

rudy

Hi Rudy,

Just because they react to one another, albigularis x exanthematicus does not necessarily mean its plausible - possible maybe....for instance:

A fellow varanophile, Gus, has a 5' male puppy-dog tame V. ornatus. He used to bring it to the local pet shop. Everytime that lizard saw a female, whether human or varanid or even tegu, it everted his hemipenes and released his "stress" all over Gus, or anyone else holding him at the time. Hilarious, yes, but also shows its a pheromone thing, nothing personal - the lizards act instinctual and accordingly, typical male behavior

Cheers,
mbayless

Shes almost 6ft and hes 3 ft, shes almost 20 lbs and hes 5 lbs. Yes I found out by a closely supervised visit between them that he will jump on her back and hang on trying to wrap his tail around hers before she simply shakes him loose like nothing.
The big thing is she would kill him in a minute and eat him if in a cage (she almost killed shadow whose bigger and stronger than the cape banded, had I not interferred immediately). I can get any of my albigs and one of my friends to get along with each other outside the cage but inside their habitat its a different world.
Ive read about bosc monitors being found in the stomachs of albigs and niles in Africa during studies. It might also explain why albigs and bosc are not found in the same places in the wild except rare cases even though they occupy similar habitats (Savannahs, or semi arid grasslands). Ive also had the experience of keeping albig and bosc monitors at the same time with this for an observation, the albigs had a wild feeding response every time the boscs were in sight of them, they tried to break down cage doors and whatever was in their way to get at the bosc monitors some even drooled a bit. One of the boscs was 4.5 ft the same size as the albigs at the time.
They are very different species as they are both related to the nile which in my opinion resembles the albig more than the albig resembling the bosc. Suposedly the yemenensis split into albigs and niles then bosc from the nile monitor, this is by dna classification and hemipene morphology. Id think it wouldnt work.

Hi Shvar,

I know of V albigularis feeding on V. niloticus. I have never heard of the V.albigularis feeding on V. exanthematicus - can you tell me where you saw that? I'ld like to track that down and review it.

Many Thanks shvar,
markb

;

Mark,

I had always thought there was no resemblence to salvadori with the animal pictured. But I took the guys word for it cause I had no more info. other then a picture and what he told me at the time. I myself would wonder why you would want to cross them at all. They are fine the way nature intended. My guess would be it was the old I want the biggest baddest lizard syndrome.

Anyways about the bosc cross albig. I beleive that picture used to be on the monitor garage website. The only thing I noticed about it was the tail was simular to albigs pattern but the body etc looked bosc to me just a big one.

Hi Jody,

The salvator x salvadorii cross are salvators. The guys who crossed them unintentionally thought they got one as both had been isolated for awhile, so they figured, and it makes sense, that when they put them together for space purposes, they mated, which I have pics of, they got babies and wham! Crosses - the babies I have here are salvators. If they are a true cross, I would suspect the surviving hatchling could be sterile/health problems down the road, as some bengal monitors Ive heard about, and seen 2 cases of.

As for albigularis x exanthematicus, they is a plethora of variety of markings either one can have - totally banded, no bands, small spots, big spots, no spots, and so on...
cheers,
mbayless

My apologies Mark,
My post may have been misleading. I thought your previous post stated that it was plausible. I mentioned how interested my albig. was as just sort of a side note. Anyways, thank you for all the information.

Rudy

Hi Rudy,
No apologies needed, but thanks! I think their encounters are extremely rare, as there are only a very few places in N.E. Africa where both species "might" be seen near one another - and those places are known to seasonal flooding; V. exanthematicus and V. albigularis both share similar ecologies, but different micro-habitats. They diets are similar, snails, insects, snakes when available (for V.a.), and opportunistic feeders.

Cheers Rudy,
markb