Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi there, I just returned from a 2 week African safari and got a great pic of a water monitor as it was hunting along the banks of the Chobe River. I got quite a few more if you like what you see here... (this guy was just over 3 feet long and seemed very calm, all the other ones we came across ran away as quick as they could!)

Thanks for looking!
Ryan

Ryan, you're just everywhere ain'tcha? Good shot, I enjoy your pics.

Quig

Could you show a pic/pics of the whole animal. It appears very fat.

Its often understood that wild monitors are skinny/thin/lean, but its been my experience, while there are those types, there are also REAL hefty ones too. Thanks again.

Ahh... I was wondering, exactly what type of monitor it was (I'm more a snake guy). Here is a pic of the entire body, he had some meat on his bones and wasn't too skinny. I'll put up another pic of a rock monitor we came across as well...

Enjoy!

Here is a rock monitor, this is after it had a run in with a BIG bird (pic of that to follow)

Ok, so here is the promised pic of that rock monitor tangling with a BIG bird. This is a Martial's Eagle, it swooped down in front of us and killed this rock monitor (we were literally 15 feet away, you could feel the woosh of air as this bird flew over the car)... if you look closely, the monitor is fighting for it's life attempting to bite the eagle. The first pic was after the eagle left the monitor for dead, I thought it was odd that he didn't run away... well he couldn't, his guts had been spilled by the eagles talons and the eagle was in the tree above just waiting for us to leave and then he came down to finish the meal!

np

You have taken some amazing photos!!! In particular, the sequence with the savannah monitor lossing the struggle for survival against a Martial eagle. Truly photos worthy of an entry in some wildlife photography contest. Post more if you have them

Of course in Africa and the rest of the world the WT is called the "savannah monitor" among other names, the bosc was given that name by the American pet industry as it was mistaken for a WT by some dealers, also they were thought to be the same species, different subspecies at one time, the name just stuck after that.
Thats an albigularis, not exanthematicus.
Beautiful photos, the colors on the WT are really neat, almost blue.

thanks for sharing these pics. regarding the fight to the death, sometimes the eagles tangle with more than they can handle. if the eagle doesnt get a killing grip on the monitor, then the lizard can in turn lock onto the bird. knowing how some monitors bite and hold, the birds die of exhaustion. in the museum of natural history in new york city, locked in a storage area of off sight relics, is a chunk of earth, with the bones of a monitor (indicus) and an eagle. they both died locked in each others grip.

thanks again,

-john
cybersalvator.com

You were very lucky to see that. The poor albig was not so lucky.

I also have a funny Eagle story. Once a friend and I were looking around the southern parts of the Kimberly region in northwestern Australia. I noticed a Wedgie, wedgetailed eagle carrying something, while soaring over my friend. I yelled at my friend to look up. I asked, what does it have? Then the eagle dropped what it was carrying, nearly on top my friend. I ran over to see what it was carrying. Much to my amazement, it was carrying a Emu. Not the bird, but a can of Emu beer. A Friggin beer can. Man those Auzzies are friendly, even the eagles make sure you have beer to drink. Cheers

Here are some pictures to back up what you said about wild monitors Frank.

You could say this one is obese.

This one doesn't miss too many meals either.

Cheers,
Michael

>>Could you show a pic/pics of the whole animal. It appears very fat.
>>
>> Its often understood that wild monitors are skinny/thin/lean, but its been my experience, while there are those types, there are also REAL hefty ones too. Thanks again.

Heres a pic of a really jumbo wild phillipine water, V.s.m.. This pic was posted by a fella in country.

I have several pics of even jumbo ackies, hahahahahahaha.

My guess is, these will make fine breeders and the skinny ones, not so good. My other guess is, these jumbo individuals are the social non-nomadic individuals that live in a stable enviornment(at least until someone killed it) And my guess is, these are the individuals that multiclutch.

My son and I were discussing just how much food it takes to get them that fat. I know what it takes with mice. It takes a bizzillion mice. So what and how much are these jumbos eating? Thanks

lol, can you show the giant ackie?
-----
-Marshall
1.1.0 ball pythons
0.0.1 red ackie

I was refering to jumbo, which means fat. But I will post a pic of each, a giant ackie and a jumbo ackie.

Heres a large topender, it measured out at 37 inches. we saved it from a little feral cage, who had it by the head. This ackies body is about 4 inches wide.

Heres a kinda jumbo fat female. She is from near Port Headland, normally the ackies from this area are very very yellow, but after a couple of years of burning off the grass, we started finding red ones. As after the yellow grass was burned off, all it left was the red earth and rocks. Anyway here she is.

Both of these are from completely different areas in Australia. Enjoy

very cool. thanks for sharing!
-----
-Marshall
1.1.0 ball pythons
0.0.1 red ackie