Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If a monitor is being attacked, can it "Drop" it's tail? Can an iguanas tail be reattached?

Neither Monitors or Iguanas "drop" their tail. If you grab an Iguana by the tail it will easily break off. You can not reattach it but it will regenerate a new tail but will look different than the original and of course not have a vertebra. Monitor tails might break off if you grabbed them toward the end but not nearly as easily as an Iguana. When I use the term Iguanas I mean Iguana iguana and not Cyclura which react similar to monitors when grabbed by the tail. NEITHER DROP THE TAIL UNLESS GRABBED BY THE TAIL WITH FORCE AND ALLOWED TO PULL AWAY THUS BREAKING IT....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

are you serious joe?

Haha,
Mike.

Did I just get scammed? I was wondering if it was a serious question but thought it possible so I answered....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Hi Tom,

No you didn't just get scammed, it is indeed a real question posed by a real person, BUT, and the big BUT is, look down a few threads and see the brawl that took place over the same question hahahahahaha. So you can see my questionable state when reading this question by Joe.

Cheers,
Mike Capanna.

Gotcha, Have a great day. Like Martin Luther King said" Why can't we all just get along?"
We all are into monitors, there are so many people to get angry at that I do not have time to list them.

Actually that was Rodney King NOT Martin Luther King unless that was a scam also. Although after the "King" statement I'm not sure but that both were real....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Thanks for setting me straight Tom. Peace out!

I just read the thread your talking about and I understand your reply...haha...I probably wouldn't have commented except to refer them to the nit picky, I mean serious discussion thread below...lol...
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

I get the feeling theres a little laugh behind that ?. That being said I think it`s a fun topic , so.................

The term tail dropping loosely refers to lizards that have detachable tails when pressure is applied. Lizards such as Iguanas have special "fracture planes" down the length of their tails for this purpose.

The answer is no monitors do not " drop their tails " , monitor tails do not contain specific fracture plains for the purpose of tail augmentation .

When a lizards tail is completely detached it can`t be reattached. In the case of animals such as Iguanas that have tails designed to break a new tail will grow back. In animals such monitors it`s a stub forever.

As a side note a study was done on a population of Cyclura and tail loss frequency was over 60% in the wild animals being studied. It is believed the high incidence of this tail loss was not due to predation but due to fighting amongst the iguanas themselves.

Ernie Eison

WESTWOOD ACRES REPTILE FARM INC.

Hi Ernie,

It is all fun, otherwise I wouldn't waste my time, being wrong, being right, hatching eggs, losing eggs, killing monitors, letting them prosper, it is all in the name of the game.....and I love the game, as do many here. (hopefully i win more than i lose hahahah)

Cheers,
Mike.

AMEN, Mike

I can drop my brain when my woman nags me its 10 times better then tail dropping.