Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The current issue of Natural History magazine (11/03), has a very good article about varanids and their inteligence, which is seldom seen in other reptiles.
The article is titled "The lizard kings", p.40, Samuel S. Sweet/Eric R Pianka, and has some nice photos as well.
I especially love the cover "mugshot" of v. komodoensis, it really shows nice colors.
All in all, a recommended read!
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Pozdrav,
Anton T.
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Thank you Sir, may I have another?

HI Anton,
Yes it was a good, insightful article, especially about Australian varanids and competitors - I especially liked the cover photo as well. Its nice to see varanids articles in Natural History - it has been awhile, 1995 since John Philipps wrote his article on V. albigularis...

cheers,
mbayless

And I was hoping I'd gotten to that one before you
How do you go about looking for information? Any particular places you look in, or is it just the luck of the draw?
I especially liked the bit about beer and heloderm venom in your post below, any chance of telling me where I could find the thesis, if it is at all available?
Thanks (once again) for the info...I have a lot of searching to do...
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Pozdrav,
Anton T.
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Thank you Sir, may I have another?

HI Anton,

Well, I live near a university library containing 7,000,000 books at my disposal and review. Where does one start you ask? Well, since my primary interest is African Varanids, first I go to BioScience library and find everything I can listing Varanus - xerox or get reprints of - and reviewing those bibliographies, go from there. Then I shelf read the general books on "Africa" in the main library section, about 3,000 books one by one. Again, I tract down the sources listed there-in as well, if available. Usually it is only listed as "Gunther, 1864" with no other notations - I then check through books written by or about (Albert) Gunther, Herpetologist at British Museum Natural History, and go from there...sometimes I find it, other times not. This week, I stumbled purely accidental on a paper I have been looking for for years - by just taking a N. African based-journal off the shelf and found it! EUREKA!!

I have found natural history information on V. indicus in ethnology-related books, and in ornithology-based books and journals too - the bird and ethnology people are very helpful and outright generous with information about this monitor or that one...not to say herpetologists are not, but when I am banging on their door or filling up their post-box with numerous inquiries - they know I am up to something! Something they may want to publish themselves in their own name. I like the sleuthing aspect of the most, and (often) having to translate it from french, german, italian, russian, makes it slower going but fun never-the-less. As one fellow a 100 or so years ago said about the nile monitor that I really like: "It has bed-spring markings on its back of yellow surround with the black of night pattern....it is the Admiral of cunning when hunting for the eggs of the nefarious crocodile."

Alot of it is LUCK! Persistance and passion for these animals, and one never knows where or when a real insight into their biology can be found within the pages of literature; of course I spent 22 years living with them myself, but cannot do this anymore per my lousy health. I gained alot of knowledge and pleasure living with these animals, and miss that, but I know alot of people who still live with them, share their observations and such, some are truly remarkable, and in time I hope to publish some of these along side natural history with this species and that....like I did with my Artrellia (crocodile monitor) in Reptiles June 1998...I now have 5,000 articles and getting some more tommorrow...and I keep these articles catalogued on 15,000 3x5 index cards - old fashion yes, but I don't have to worry about the damn thing being deleted on these damn computers!

Good Luck,
mbayless