Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got another sav yesterday, a 'male'. I do actually believe it is a male due to it's appearance and he is about the same size as my female; so i thought. I guess i just did not realize the size of my female but she is HUGE! the male is a bit smaller than her, but is also a few months younger I believe. Anywho, they will be housed separately, but I put the male in with the female today and some weird stuff happened. At first, she came out of her hide and was very curious about him, smelling every inch, and he did not mind any of this ( the guy I bought him from said he had lived with another sav for about a year(?)) anyway, something triggered in him and he ran into a hide. She followed and pretty much layed on top of him, still smelling every inch of him. Then, she began 'scratching' at his back, almost like she was trying to dig through him or something weird. It did not appear to be inflicting pain on him though, so i let it continue, curious to see what would unfold. She kept nudging him with the tip of her nose, and i was watching closely to make sure they were not hurting each other and that is when she opened her mouth and kind of bit at his neck so that is when i jumped in and separated them. Any explanations for any of this besides -"get this butt pirate out of my enclosure!"?

*Note- I was by no means trying to have them breed or anything other than what it is, I was just curious as to what would happen and kept a close eye to ensure the lizards safety. This also was all in a span of like, 10 min, not long.

I could be wrong, but that sounds like male behavior. Maybe your female is a male and vice versa.

Not necessarily, its dominance behavior. If you let the second monitor live for a period of time in its own cage and introduce the other animal in its cage you may see a role reversal, but you may see the same, or a fight, or they run from each other.
What you see for now sounds like a dominant and submissive set of monitors.
To them theres a minute difference between dominace and sexual behavior, the latter needs sexually mature specimens from both sexes to occur though.
You may have 2 males, 2 females, a male, and a female, its hard to tell, the behaviors are the same.
Be forwarned, if you attempt to keep the 2 together. The environment has to be able to support both together so one does not stress the other to death, or just outright kill the other.
Good luck, and keep on learning from these fascinating creatures.

Thats why I said I wasn't sure. Makes sense. I have seen it with males to females, but never the other way around. Interesting.