Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any pictures of a full grown Water Monitor? Preferably a CB one, and better yet, with a person in the picture to judge scale.

I'm only asking because I see hundres of pictures of baby/juvie waters, maybe a few in the 4 - 5 foot range, but I've NEVER seen a picture of a CB Water. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough..

Go to cybersalvator.com and go to Varanus s. salvator in the photo gallery. There are quite a few pics of full grown Waters with their keepers in that gallery as well as the Sulfur gallery. Below is a picture of a full grown (11 years I think) male Sulfur. He was easily in the 6 foot range. Good luck in your quest. Oh yeah, there is also two famous pictures of a 7 foot, 135 pound salvator in several of the TFH books on monitors. One is Robert Sprackland with this giant on his lap and another is a feeding pic with the keeper holding a rat above the lizard's opened mouth. Cool pics. Billy

>>Does anyone have any pictures of a full grown Water Monitor? Preferably a CB one, and better yet, with a person in the picture to judge scale.
>>
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>>I'm only asking because I see hundres of pictures of baby/juvie waters, maybe a few in the 4 - 5 foot range, but I've NEVER seen a picture of a CB Water. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough..

The current record for a live monitor is 10ft 3inches and is a water monitor, beat the old komodo record in length by less than an inch. That example is a rarity but a reality, big strong animal.

I'm assuming that when you say "live monitor" that you mean the current overall record is higher? (I mean, including dead ones.)

That's one thing that drives me nuts about monitors is the fact that you always seem to get different answers to length questions. I'm not doubting you or anything. It's just I go to one site and I read Crocs (As an example) can hit 12, the next says 13, and the petstore in this area that always exaggerates everything says the record is 15 feet 7 inches.

Thanks for the pictures, guys. They really are massive animals.

But I have to ask: Some of the adults in the pictures (Like over at Cybersalvator.com) look really fat. Are they considered obese? Or are they just that big as adults? ..or maybe they just ate?

The longest croc proven is less than 9 ft if I remember right. Theres always someone that says they shot a 30 ft snake or 15 ft croc monitor or something like that. Recently the discussion of a 49ft 990lb reticulated python came up, most people would look at the pics and say "thats nowhere near that size", yets others said " Its definitely over 30ft but its no 49ft", a reporter finally insisted on measuring it and the keeper said "I dont know how it shrunk 28ft", it was only 21 ft in the first place. Whether its a claim to a record or exageration, alot of those old records are dried out stretched skins, deceptive pics, or empty claims. I have a picture of a green Iguana that many people who visited the dealership it lives at said "wow, that thing is 7-9ft long, Ive never seen anything close to it", these claims went on for almost 2 years, I visited this fall and took pics, hes 18-19 inches STV and if his tail never broke hed be around 6ft. The 10ft 3inch water monitor measurement was a recent capture of a wild caught animal I believe. Its the longest proven.

varanus salvator, from sri lanka 321 cm, aprox 10 feet 4 inches, and it isnt recent capture. its mentioned in mertens monograph. shvar where did you hear a new capture? interested... -john
http://www.cybersalvator.com

Maybe I should have clarified. Although I have the date referenced on the 10ft 3 inch salvator in a book or magazine I believe, and it wasnt too long ago.

oh right on shvar.
i wonder what the weight of that salvator was. if it even came close to 100lbs. -john

Hi Shvar and JohnA.,

John, we have spoke of this many times; I wrote about the maximum lengths in Reptilian magazine a few years ago on the Editorial pages: 10'3" salvator was shot in Sri Lanka by Captain (later Major) S. Stanley and deposited into the British Museum Natural History. The largest komodo dragon (V. komodoensis) was 10'3" by Burton on his 1927 trip. Burden's komodo was collected and sailed (by mishap) to Washington State instead of San Diego, caught pneumonia and died shortly there-after. Its stuffed mount floated around for decades, and ended up in Tilden Park Regional Park, in Berkeley, CA for ~15 years or so in their foyer/lobby.
They got tired of it and a bar in Los Angeles bought it and took down to Los Angeles via pick-up truck; Los Angeles Natural History Museum apparently got wind of it, and got it from the bar owner - and it is now in LANHM. Its a beautiful mount and nicely displayed, and is in fact 10'2" - I measured it while it was here in Tilden Park (10 minutes from me - John, you remember the park, the place where I almost died walking up that hill, that I still cannot walk up w/out having a respiratory attack~).

As for V. salvadorii, the largest known male was owned by Ron St. Pierre in the early 90's. I photographed and measured him at 8'3". There is a larger male at Brownsville Zoo, one of their parents to the several hatchlings they have had, and he is over 10 feet total length. However, V. salvadorii does not even close to the wight of V. salvator and V. komodoensis...

and then there are the various nebulous reports of giant goannas in PNG and Africa which exceed 9 feet, and although the species' in question are still unknown, I do know that at least 2 do actually exist in Africa, and the circumstantial evidence for the thing in PNG, alhough sometimes vague, are found buried in books of exploration/ethnology/colonial Rule and enlightening to say the least...

cheers,
markb

When I measured him he was 8' 4" I sent you pictures remember?

To bad I suck and he died.

Glimpse of a 7ft 3in BT on TV once but would love to see it and some of the other giants in person.

I don't think it's cb but it's an adult. This is Danny @ D&J reptiles. I didn't take the pic, it's on D&J's website. Hope that gives you an idea.

That is simply AMAZING. Where is that pic at? Do you know? Thanks for sharing such a beautiful animal.

Bill
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0.1 Red Tegu
0.0.1 Savannnah Monitor
0.0.1 Nile Monitor
0.1 Mali Uromastyx
1.1 Leopard Gex
1.0 Veiled Chameleon
1.1.? Red-tail Boas (babies on the way!!)
0.1.3 Oscellated Skinks
1.1 Mellers Chameleon (eggs possibly on the way!)
0.0.1 Sulcatta
1.0 Chinchilla
0.1 Great Dane / Pitbull

here is a link.

http://www.kingsnake.com/dnj/

this is a west javan salvator. i asked danny where this animal originated. it is also about the upper limit of top size in java over 7 feet. the real giants are main land asian- malaysia, thailand, sri lanka (records from 8-10 feet or more). -john