Whatever word you like, when the words means the monitors choose and know how to be in a situation that includes others.
To make it a little clearer, a anti-social monitor, seeks out and attacks cagemates, or the different members in a simple cage Avoid eachother. Again, to repell is anti soical, to attract or seek the company of, is to be social.
What appears to happen here is to much rule making, and making the rules extreme without variation. This is why biologists hate ethlogy(behavior). Behavior has many answers to the same test. Or no answers at all. Its not math. Or at least its highly variable, individually prejudiced math. hahahahahahahaha
Then consider, social behaviors can be and are, age related and need related. For instance, monitors are more social or gather in groups during some seasons, fall/winter/spring. And less so during the summer. Or different parts of the colony behave differently, transients(individuals without set homes) are different then residents, which often live in pairs and groups and have very set patterns of movements.
But oh nevermind. it does not matter what you call it, as long as you do call it something.
Today, I want to show monitors kissing. I am not sure its kissing, but it appears all the world like kissing. Two monitors next to eachother, one reaches over and repeatedly touches its nose to the others nose and lips. They do this, then go back to whatever they were doing. We have seen most species do this, again, from the little to the big.
This is not a good pic and a little bit of french kissing. They do tongue the others lips as well. But its the best I could come up with on short notice.
Next is communal nesting. Or pair nesting, or mate guarding. We commonly see all of these. In some cases, several females and a male, will help dig a nesting chamber with the gravid female. Hmmmmmmmm is this concern for another(social)
While we see this all the time, getting pics is hard. But alas, did get pics.
The results of this group nesting was two perfectly good clutches that hatched.
Next is nest guarding, We see this as commonplace. It does vary, Whats noticable is, the time the female is laying eggs, all action in the cage stops or nearly stops. The males, post up high and still in position until the eggs are laid.
Sometimes, they will defend the nest, other times they run, as I get the feeling we humans are too much to handle. They do defend the nest against suitable sized intruders.
Here is a male mertens guarding the nest as the female digs.
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One last event, we have a group of monitors, that are crosses between V.gilleni and V.caudolineatus. There are 6 females in this group and two males. All six were gravid at the same time and are nesting in the same area of a large cage. Hmmmmmmmmm wouldn't/shouldn't they avoid that.
There is much more and all are complicated behaviors. Social, communal, reproductive, whatever you want to call them, they are interesting.
I call them social, because they attract eachother in doing these behaviors.
Lastly I do not want to hear if you disagree or not, a halfwit can disagree, no offense, it takes more to show me something then simply disagree. So stop with the disagreeing and start with the proof that they are not social. Do any of you have highly successful results keeping them apart? any kind of results, even bad ones? something other then, Oh so and so said, or I read. Or on science today a friend of a friend said. Give me something to chew on, pics, results, something solid, not heresay and opinion. Come on with your bad selfs. Put up or shut up. Cheers
