Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The pair of water monitors I posted about putting in an outdoor enclosure were paired today. They had been in adjacent cages for a couple of weeks. Both seemed settled in. The male was sitting by the female on his side of the partition shaking his head at her. Is this courtship, or aggression?. I opened the shift door and he entered. The female greeting him with a bite, a five minute wrestling match ensued. Each bit the other, drawing a little blood. They broke. The male went back to his side and I shut the shift door. The female is a few years older. Both are about the same body size, but she is bulkier. In the images she is on the left and yellower. Except for the intro image, where she is the biter.

Is this foreplay? Do I have a sexual pair? Should I leave them together?

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Campti Sam

Looks to me like two males engaged in ritual combat.

I would agree. How do you know your female is a female? Has she laid eggs? Or is it a best guess by you?

HM

If "she" is on the left then she is almost certainily a "he". I looked at the pics before I read your post and thought that was the male. I agree with the other two posters that you seem to have a pair of males.
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"We don't inherate the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children"

Sigh. It was my 'best guess', wishful thinking.

What was the head jerking behavior by the one male?

How would you know it was a female?

Anyone want a male monitor??
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Campti Sam