I currently own an adult Black Roughneck Monitor.
I noticed in your post some several threads down the list that you had asked why these monitors are not very popular.
The basic answer as I understand it from talking and working with a few reptile dealers is that the juveniles, which are nearly all wild caught with the exception of those that are raised on breeding ranches (in this case I refer to the facility that Bushmaster Reptiles works with) are rather delicate.
BRN's just don't appear to cope well with the stress and abuse of importation, so alot of them die before they reach the dealer, or they die within a few weeks after they arrive. Reputable dealers who actually spend alot of time with an imported animal ensuring its suitability for sale tend to get frustrated with BRN's since they appear to do well, eat and grow, but then just fall over and die.
The less scrupulous dealers tend to just sell them off as quickly as they can before they fall over and die.
All this boils down to is that BRN's are difficult animals to sell, so dealers often talk about their unsuitability or simply wont carry them. This I think has led to a perception that V. Rudicollis is a unsuitable captive, and a fragile one, hence not very popular.
My own experience tells me once they acclimate they tend to do fine and are shy but very gentle mid-sized monitors.
Of course this is another case where those of us who would like to see more people exposed to these really great varanids we need to start more captive breeding efforts instead of rolling the dice with Wild Caught stock.
Hope this sheds some light on your question.
-Kit
