Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's some pics I took today. I was bored, and didn't have work, so me and my buddy drove over to the Bronx Zoo. In the nursery of the reptile house, they had five, gorgeous baby mertens that they hatched out, but unfortunately the picture did not come out. Here's a pic of one of the parents(I presume, although I'm sure they have a breeding group off exhibit as well)

If you haven't had the opportunity to visit the bronx zoo, I recommend that you do, it is probably one of the most beautiful zoos in the country. The jungleworld exhibit alone, is well worth the trip, not to mention the impressive herp collection.

bob

A beautiful pair of emeralds..

np

They have a beautiful pair of varius on exhibit as well. Here's what they do have on exhibit as far as varanids go; I am not sure of what they keep "behind the scenes":

Varanus melinus- the most beauful melinus i've seen-they almost look like a cummingi!!!

Varanus ornatus
Varanus becarri-nice fat, healthy individuals
Varanus prasinus
Varanus varius
Varanus mertensi

The bronx zoo has got to have the world's largest king cobra; that thing looks like it can easily swallow an eight foot burmese... Anyways, enough ranting, I love visiting there, and am happy that I have the advantage of living only a half hour drive from there or so; I recommend everybody checks it out someday...

bob

I was just there on the 1st. Did u see the baby mertens water monitors? They were awsome! They also had a huge burm and large Gharral(sp) crocs. I really liked the lace monitors, too!

Yup, the baby mertens were adorable... However that burmese that they've got there is morbidly obese. It is probably no more than 18 feet long, and under no circumstances should it be that girthy and obese. The poor thing does not have a neck!!! It reminds me of some drugged up meathead football player...They are probably juicing it up with pigs, to make up for their loss of samantha, the world's longest snake.

As far as the gharials, I believe that they are false gharials, unlike their lookalike, more severely threatened indian cousins..quite impressive animals nevertheless.

But what a collection...

bob

the last few times I was at the Bronz zoo they had both true gharials and Malaysian gharials (Tomistoma). The Malaysian gharial was in the reptile house but the true gharials were in Jungle World, in a beautiful multi species enclosure, with waterfalls etc. The first time I saw the ghrarials there were quite a few small ones. The last time I was there they had fewer on display but they were much much larger.

Hey dk,

yeah, a couple years ago, they still had the true gharials in the jungleworld exhibit, however, I have not seen them in there the last dozen or so times that I visited. Today, all I saw was their false gharials in the reptile house, housed right next to their pair of chinese alligators. That jungleworld exhibit, has to be the most spectacular indoor exhibits I have ever visited. It kind of makes me daydream that my future house's sunroom will be just like that exhibit, except without the smelly, destructive primates- I sat and watched a pair of gibbons tear apart the crown of a sabal palm and then move on to a benjamin fig tree...

just out of curiosity, dk, I know you are in australia, but I am not sure what part. Do you happen to have monkey-puzzle trees in your area? That has to be one of the nastiest trees I have encountered while living in florida; squirrels would jump from a trachycharpus palm into the monkey puzzle, only to get diced and sliced up by the sharp, blade like leaves. I was just wondering if the native fauna has difficulties/accidents with this tree, or are they able to navigate it/use it without incident? I would think birds wouldn't have a problem, but what about arboreal mammals and herps?? Just curious. It's a very fascinating tree.

take care dk,

bob

thanks for that. It's been at least three or so years since I last visited NYC, so the gharials probably got too big for that display and were removed in the interim.

I live in Sydney. Monkey puzzles are native to Chile but we have other members of that family (I think even the same genus, in some cases) native to Australia and nearby islands (such as the Norfolk Island pine), but I they don't seem to have the sharp leaves you are referring to. There are a few ornamental monkey puzzles planted around the place, I'll have to have a closer look at one. I can't recall ever seeing a native possum or herp in one (not to say they don't use them) so I have no idea how they'd handle it. A few of the native fan palms and Pandanus have pretty nasty spikes at the base of their leaves and that doesn't seem to deter reptiles.

...I'm with you on Jungle World. It rocks.

last time I was there 1-2yrs ago I think she was there. Did she die or something? I cant remember how big she was but I didnt know she was the largest in captivity.

Hey there,

yes, samantha died last november('02). The bronx zoo has since been on the lookout for a proper replacement. I'm sure that supposed 49 footer peaked their interest, but as we all know, it turned out to be nothing more than a mere 21'. Samantha was one of the most impressive reptiles that i've ever whitnessed, however, it was probably her obesity, that led to health complications which ended her life...

bob

Nice pictures, Bob. I don't even know if the Milwaukee County Zoo has any monitors. It must be nice to see such beautiful animals. I went to a reptile exhibit at our museum a few months ago and they had a young water monitor, but most of the exhibit was about snakes. Great job!

Pam