Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any info on captive savannah monitor longevity?

Properly cared for savannahs can be expected to live well over 10 years, with 15 to 20 years being a reasonable average.

It's a commitment. A trust, no backing out....

Peace,
Wayne A. Harvey

our critters

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1.2.9 Storeria dekayi Casper, Xena, Athena, & Kids
0.0.2 Thamnophis marcianus - Checkered Garter Snakes
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis - common Garter - Princess
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua"
0.1.10 Storeria occipitomaculata - Red Belly snakes
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Juvinile CB
0.1.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER" CB
0.1.0. Green Anole "Crystal" WC
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
1.2.0. Feline"Felix" "Kaja" & "Silver"
0.1.0. calico RAT
2.4.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

it says that your savannah is CB in your signature. where did you get it?

cb= captive born or (hatched) cbb= captive bred and born

The proper term for this one is "Ranched". The dealer seems honest enough about it.

Ranched in Florida or Ranched in Tanzania I cannot say???

I did buy from a classified seller with a good rep, this little guy pounds bugs and burrows all day.

So far I am pleased. I bought the Asian Green Snake from the same guy, and the snake is a WC import, doing great. 4 confirmed meals.... A good sign.

Peace,
Wayne A. Harvey

our critters

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1.2.9 Storeria dekayi Casper, Xena, Athena, & Kids
0.0.2 Thamnophis marcianus - Checkered Garter Snakes
0.0.1 Thamnophis sirtalis - common Garter - Princess
0.0.1 Nerodia sipedon - Water Snake - "Aqua"
0.1.10 Storeria occipitomaculata - Red Belly snakes
0.0.1 Amelanistic Corn Snake "CY" Juvinile CB
0.1.0. Pueblan Milk snake "Oreo" adult CB
1.0.0. ASIAN GREEN SNAKE 3' WC Cyclophiops major
0.0.1. Savannah Monitor "CHOMPER" CB
0.1.0. Green Anole "Crystal" WC
1.0.0. K9 "ACE" Black Cockapoo
1.2.0. Feline"Felix" "Kaja" & "Silver"
0.1.0. calico RAT
2.4.?? Mice - Feeder farm - Crickets / fish
More herps than I could ever list out back on the land.

To offense but ranched actually means, the locals dig up eggs and the eggs are hatched in captivity. There are no ranches and no adult captives that these babies come from.

You must understand being wild caught really is not a disadvantage. Its what happens during that time that causes problems. If a reptile is caught in the while and taken care of right off the bat, they are absolutely strong and realiable. But if they are tied to trees and tossed in bins of hundreds to thousands and stuffed in bags and shipped and reshipped all over the world. That indeed can have a delerterious effect on any animal, wild caught or not.

Then consider what happens along the way. That can also have a deleterious effect on a reptiles health.

For instance, is the monitor or snake you get, the individual on the top of the pile or the bottom of the pile. The ones on the bottom have given up the will to live. You do indeed take your chances.

About captive longevity, the average is most likely below a month. With rare individuals living over three years, and even more rare individuals living past the 15 year mark.

How do I come by those numbers, its easy, over the last 15 years millions of savs have been imported, yet any living over ten years is almost non exsistant. Most die in shipping or within a month of being shipped. If not, the classifieds would be overrun with adds for old adult Savs.

So Savs do have a potential to live a long life, but just rarely occurs. Sorry for the bad news, but its more or less accurate. In fact, I may be overestimating the success rate. Cheers

unfortunately, Frank is right. AVERAGE captive lifespan is probably something so low as to be nearly unbelievable, measured, barely, in months.

as for what is possible...

i don't think we can say. even a long lived 15 year old animal would have spent a significant amount of time, especially the crucial young years, in husbandry setups that were not exactly ideal.

as a monitor community, sharing husbandry info and knowledge, we don't even have a solid 10 years under our belts. someone like FR has been keeping monitors well for a longer time, but he doesn't represent the thousands of other keepers, he is pretty unique.

with more widespread understanding of proper husbandry- great temps, great soils, great moisture, great setups in general, i think the answers for longevity are still to come.

captive reptiles (snakes and monitors) have shown long lifespans given very sub-par conditions. what is possible when given "ideal" conditions?

we'll see.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Great thought Robyn, I missed that altogether.

I have been watching gilas in nature for a very long time. I have watched one site(hands off)(which means I only watch and do not touch) for 29 strait years. The very first individual I observed is still there, and it was a breeding female from the first year. Oddly, she is not the oldest appearing animal on that site. Some appear to be two or more times her age. In the last 29 years, we not see generations of her offspring. I have documented this site on varanus.net for about the last five or so years.

So lets say, shes 35 and looking very much middle aged.

I have talked with some well know Heloderma breeders and some believe a lifespand over 50, possibly 70 is more accurate. I cannot argue against those statements. And you all know I do argue if I have reason to believe otherwise.

Its also well known that many turtle/tort species can and do well exceed those numbers. Also we now know that those turtles and torts are active, live and reproduce over VERY long periods. As my MASTERS field partner says, if animals closely related are doing something(both sides of the evolutionary train) then why would you not expect the animals in the middle to NOT BEING DOING THE SAME??????

So what is varanids genetic potential??? heck if I know, I have one thats 23 and only now starting to act his age. I have a couple small monitors that are over 16, and they have been rode hard and put away wet.

So yea, who knows what the real limit is, but I will tell you, its over what is now being achieved, by many times.

The sad part is, Sav keepers are not willing to change, oh heck, most are not willing to change.(another sad story)

I have been BROADCASTING our success in all areas of varanid keeping since 1991,(growth, reproduction, longevity) yet only a select few have taken that information and ran with it. That bothers me. As it then makes it about peoples egos more then the knowledge not being available. Sorry if I think like that, but if you were in my shoes, you could not think any other way. I do nothing special, except work hard. I guess I did not know working hard was that special.

I mean, I do not do the best at anything, yet I keep on getting the best results. yet their(the others) are doing the best, ideal, superior, and their animals do not succeed. Hmmmmmmmmmm Yes, that does not make sense. Someone needs to clarify what ideal, best, etc, means. Cheers

Usually ranching savannah monitors involves capturing gravid females in November and December rather than digging up nests. The females lay eggs in captivity and are then released, stressed and dehydrated. In Ghana they are released, along with female Python regius, in a small nature reserve called Shai Hills that is full of baboons. Their chances of survival are not much higher than zero. This sort of ranching is by far the most destructive way of collecting animals for the pet trade, but also the most profitable
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Mampam Conservation

Are just hatchlings dug up during the time they havent escaped from the termite mounds, basically just WC by locals looking to make money because they know when to dig them up.
Most arent even hatched in captivity, these people dont want to put that much effort into it.

I don't think that's correct. For one thing few if any monitors are collected in places where termitaria are used for nests, secondly it's much easier to collect the gravid females than it would be to collect newly hatched youngsters (especially if it meant digging into termite mounds. The eggs are hatched in captivity, but it's not difficult because eggs from wild females will hatch almost anywhere and they don't seem to care where they dump their eggs. Usually they are kept on slightly damp sawdust and unless it dries out almost all of them hatch.
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Mampam Conservation

Interesting, but Ive seen way too many "farmed" hatchlings that still have internal parasite problems (those native to their homelands), and scars recieved during the collection, capture process. Termite mounds, farmers fields, stream or river banks, whatever, these people know when to look for them, and when they come out of the ground, it would be easy to catch them at that point.

I agree most are collected after they hatch . When it starts raining the monitors start hatching and they go and collect them. This is what the people I deal with in Ghana have always told me. It's very similar to the iguanas in some places. Like Suriname and Miami.

Ernie Eison
Westwoodreptiles.com

If they are collected after they have hatched then they are not ranched, just wild caught. It's actually a much better system than ranching because only about a third of the youngsters are caught. But for some reason the European Union recommended ranching for savannah monitors and ball pythons in Ghana. It's much more profitable than digging out the babies.
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Mampam Conservation

Obviously if they have parasites and scars they are very unlikely to be farmed.
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Mampam Conservation