Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I found the following in Daniel Bennett's "Little Book of Monitor Lizards": "This monitor [v.acanthurus] is easy to sex by looking for clusters of well developed spiny scales on the tail base at either side of the vent in males."

Anyone care to comment or confirm? If you have mature ackies of known gender, please check this out and take a minute to post whether there is a difference in those scales between your specimens.

Usually appears to be about 5-6 of them, females have what appears to be much smaller and less of them.
Also males have big thick heads when mature, females have small thin heads. When you look at 2 ackies (male and female) when mature you can tell them apart, differences in head shape, etc.

Thanks SHVar, you were one of the people I was hoping for a response from.

I've seen lots of reference to comparing head shape, but no mention of the spurs. I'll take a closer look at the spurs later tonight to compare counts and development.

Thusfar, I've thought my subadult trio was 1.1.1 based on head shape, but when discovering this spur reference last night, I immediately proceeded to examine my group and was concerned to find spurs on all 3.

Males have more developed spurs.

any way you can post pictures of these spurs i think im missing them. thanks

On average the males appear to have what looks like 5-6 whereas the females on average 4-5, this is why its one way of many to tell them apart. the malkes purs are more developed and stick out further. Ill see if I can find pics.